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THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONS ON THE SAN 
GABRIEL RIVER, 1745-1749 

HERBERT E. BOLTON 

It is not generally known that the San Gabriel River in central 
Texas was once the seat of Franciscan missionary activity. Yet 
such is the case, and slender remains of the mission establishments 
are still to be seen in the valley of that stream. If one will drive 
nine miles northwest from. Rockdale to the Kolb Settlement, and 
then turn westward up the river for about a mile, he will come to 
what has long been known in the neighborhood as “Ditch Valley 
Farm,” a name, the present writer has discovered and established 
beyond doubt, which comes from the fact that through the farm 
once ran an “acequia,” or irrigating ditch, constructed in the year 
1750 to serve three Spanish missions which had recently been 
established there. In the river near by are still to be seen at low 
water the remains of what has long been known as the old “Rock 
Dam,” whose origin, it is now clear, was the same as that of 
the ditch. 

The remains of the “acequia” as well as of the dam are still 
to be seen in dim outline. Crossing the main highway near the 
western end of the farm is a shallow ditch leading toward the 
river. North of the road it is quite distinct, being some eight feet 
wide at the top and two or three feet deep in the middle. The 
land on this side of the road is uncultivated, and in the bed of 
the ditch are growing hackberry trees nearly a foot in diameter. 


324 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


About one hundred feet from the road the ditch terminates in a 
natural arroyo or gully, which leads eastward into the river about 
two hundred yards away. South of the road the ditch leads into 
cultivated fields, where it is soon lost; but forty rods to the south¬ 
east, where it crosses an unplowed lane, it is again distinct, and 
eighty rods farther away it can still be faintly traced across 
another lane. 

In the bed of the river two hundred yards below the mouth of 
the arroyo the remains of the old “Rock Darn” are pointed out. 
They now consist of only a heap of large stones, stretching across 
the stream. A man fishing up the river at low water would cer¬ 
tainly notice the stones, though he might not suspect that they 
are the remains of a dam. But the inhabitants of the neighbor¬ 
hood claim to remember when both ditch and dam were quite 
distinct—a claim fully supported by the long and commonly used 
names, “Rock Dam” and “Ditch Valley Farm.” In the fields the 
“acequia” has been filled in by the plow; while most of the stones 
of the dam, I am told, have been hauled away and used for build¬ 
ing purposes. Besides the ditch and the dam, tradition tells of 
the remains of old buildings of pre-American origin, once standing 
on Kolb’s Hill, below Ditch Valley Farm. Tradition ascribes the 
ditch, the dam, and the old buildings to the Spaniards, and neigh¬ 
borhood belief in the tradition is evidenced by perennial digging 
about the locality of the dam for pots of Spanish gold. But few 
or none have guessed, what is now established beyond question, 
that these archaeological remains are the vestiges of what were 
known in their day as the San Xavier missions. 

I. THE DAWN OF HISTORY IN CENTRAL TEXAS 

1 . The obscurity of the history hitherto. —The story of these 
missions is a little known chapter in the history of the labors of 
the Franciscan Fathers among the Indians northeast of the Rio 
Grande. Writing a few years ago on “Some Obscure Points in the 
Mission Period” of the history of Texas, Dr. W. F. McCaleb said, 
with essential truth, “Though little is known of most of the 
eastern [Texas] missions, still less is known of some others. In¬ 
deed, as to the three missions on the San Xavier River, no his¬ 
torian, so far as the writer’s information goes, -save Bancroft, has 


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American Historical Review 
FEB 2 6 ‘1925 



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The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 325 


even mentioned their names.” 1 And Bancroft, he might have 
added, devotes to them only a little more than a page. Besides 
Bancroft, Dr. McCaleb should have excepted Shea, who devotes 
a few short paragraphs to the subject. 2 Had the assertion been 
intended to include books printed in a foreign language it would 
have excepted, also, Arrivicita’s Cronica Serdfica y Apostolical a 
very rare work, which contains a fairly good, though in many re¬ 
spects unsatisfactory, account of the missions, in whose founding 
and administration the author took part. Arricivita’s worst de¬ 
fect is his utter disregard for chronology and geography. There 
is, in addition, the still rarer treatise, for it is as yet unprinted, 
by Father Morfi, which devotes a considerable amount of space to 
the San Xavier missions. This history and that of Arricivita are 
the chief basis of the brief and obscure paragraphs of Bancroft 
and Shea. 4 

Since Dr. McCaleb wrote the words quoted, no advance has been 
made in published works, excepting a minor contribution by the 
present writer. 5 At the time when that was published, only Ban¬ 
croft had even dared guess the identity of the San Xavier River, 
on which the missions were established. He conjectured that it 
might have been a branch of either the Colorado or the Brazos, 
a guess giving considerable latitude, since these streams are from 
fifty to seventy-five miles apart in their middle courses. 6 Other 
features of the history of the missions have been equally or more 
obscure. Indeed, even the date of their establishment has not 
hitherto been correctly recorded. 

And yet the reason for this obscurity is not that the missions 

^he Quarterly, I, 221. 

2 See Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days (1886), 500-501; 
Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, I, 623 (ed. of 1884). 

3 Mexico, 1792. Pp. 321-338. 

4 Morfi, Memorias para la Historia de tejas, cir. 1781. A copy is in the 
Bancroft Library, and is now being edited for publication. 

5 The reference is to the article by the present writer entitled “Spanish 
Missions in the San Gabriel Valley” published in the Williamson County 
Sun, March 21, 1907. This article correctly identifies the site of the mis¬ 
sions and gives a general outline of their history, but it contains some 
errors and is indefinite at points where definite information is now at 
hand. The same article was published contemporaneously in the Rockdale 
.'Express . It was written for the purpose of arousing local interest in the 
mission remains and obtaining local information concerning them. 
6 Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, I, 623. 


326 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


were relatively unimportant, for they were more far-reaching in 
design, longer in duration, and more successful in operation than 
the San Saba mission, for example, of which much more is popu¬ 
larly known. Nor has the reason been the non-existence of data 
for making the episode fairly plain, for these are abundant. It 
has been, rather, the inaccessibility of the data, and the fact that 
considerable material remains of the San Saba mission have been 
preserved, whereas those of the San Xavier Eiver have been com¬ 
pletely lost to view. Recently, however, a large quantity of docu¬ 
mentary sources for the history of the missions on the San Gabriel 
has been gathered from the archives of Mexico, 7 and the site of 
the missions and some of their remains have been identified. It 
is now possible, therefore, to construct with some degree of ful¬ 
ness, on the basis of the newly acquired material and a study of 
the site, the story of the precarious career of these shortlived but 
not unimportant missions. 

2. The genesis of missionary activity in Texas. —One fact 
which appears from a study of missionary activities in Texas in 
the light of the distribution and organization of the native tribes, 
is that mission development was not haphazard, but bore pretty 
definite relations to the tribal grouping. The opinion sometimes 
expressed that the Spaniards set out from the first arbitrarily to 
establish a “chain of missions” in Texas, is in the main unfounded. 
Mission distribution was conditioned, as we would expect upon 
reflection, by native organization, and the practicability of such a 
plan would depend largely upon the distribution of the native 
tribes. 

The first group of Indians in Texas to receive serious attention 
from the missionaries were the Hasinai, or Asinai, of the Neches- 
Angelina country, among whom missionary activity was begun in 
1690, and renewed and extended in 1716. About 1700, with the 
establishment of three missions on the lower Rio Grande, below 
the present Eagle Pass, work was begun among the large group 
of Coahuiltecan, or Pakwan tribes, who lived between the Rio 
Grande and the San Antonio. This enterprise led logically to the 
founding of missions at San Antonio, for the same group of tribes 


7 The larger part of them come from the archives of the extinguished 
College of Santa Cruz de Quergtaro, which founded the missions and where 
they were discovered by the present writer. Specific references to the 
materials are given throughout this paper. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 327 


(1718-1731). Next, in 1722, a mission was established near Mata¬ 
gorda Bay for the Karankawan tribes of the coast, but it was 
moved inland in 1726 to the Xaranames and the Tamiques. At 
the same time that missionary work was begun among the Karan- 
kawa, attention was directed for a time to the Hierbipiame, of the 
Brazos country, but without avail, as will appear shortly. After 
1731, when the Queretaran missions were transferred from eastern 
Texas to San Antonio, there was no expansion into new missionary 
fields for over a decade and a half, although the old field gradually 
widened as a result of the efforts to supply with neophytes the 
missions already founded. By this time fifteen missions had been 
established in Texas. 

The next seventeen years, between 1745 and 1762, that is, down 
to the time when Texas lost much of its political importance 
because of the acquisition of Louisiana by Spain, was another 
period of extensive missionary expansion within the present limits 
of Texas. During that period three missions were established on 
the San Xavier River, among the Tonkawan tribes; one was 
founded on the lower Trinity River among the Orcoquiza, one on 
the lower San Antonio for the Karankawa, and three on the San 
Saba and the Nueces Rivers for the Eastern Apache. At the same 
time, attempts were made among the Wichita tribes of the upper 
Brazos and the Red Rivers. 

In all this missionary work, activity was much influenced by the 
movements or the supposed movements of the French of Louisiana, 
who were constantly regarded as dangerous rivals among the Texas 
tribes. 

3. Early knowledge of the San Xavier River. —The San Xavier 
River of Spanish days, it is now clear enough, was the San Gabriel 
of today, which joins Little River—the old San Andres, or the 
first of the Brazos de Dios—some twenty-five miles before that 
stream disembogues into the main Brazos. The way in which the 
Spanish name became converted by a series of misspellings into the 
present form, with the resulting loss of the stream’s identity in 
modern geography, is in itself an interesting bit of history, but 
cannot be indicated here. The San Xavier River early became 
known to the Spaniards as one of the streams of central Texas 
endowed with more than usually attractive surroundings. It was 
visited and given its name by the Ramon-Saint Denis expedition 


328 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

on June 1, 1716. 8 By the same party Brushy Creek, the principal 
tributary of the San Gabriel, was twice crossed and was given the 
name of Arroyo de las Benditas Animas 9 (Creek of the Blessed 
Souls), which it bore in somewhat shortened form almost contin¬ 
uously throughout Spanish days. 

From 1716 forward the San Xavier River was frequently visited 
and mentioned. The expedition led by the Marquis of Aguayo 
in 1721 passed the Colorado near the mouth of Onion Creek and 
followed a northward course that took the party across Arroyo 
de las Animas, the San Xavier River, Little River near Belton, 
and thence to the Brazos about at Waco. 10 In 1730, when the Quere- 
taran missions were removed from eastern Texas to San Antonio, 
the Zacatecan missionaries asked permission to remove their estab¬ 
lishments to the San Xavier, 11 a fact which indicates some acquain¬ 
tance with the stream. In 1732 Bustillo y Zevallos, governor of 
Texas, made a campaign against the Apache that took him to and 
beyond the San Xavier. 12 In 1744, during the perennial quarrel 
between the Canary Island settlers and the other inhabitants of 
San Antonio, it was suggested that one of the parties should 
move to the San Xavier, 13 but the proposal was not acted upon. 
Two years later it was asserted that the region of the San Xavier 
was well known to the inhabitants of San Antonio as a buffalo¬ 
hunting ground, 14 and anyone who has beheld the superb prairies 

s Espinosa, Diario derrotero de la nueva entrada a la Prov. de los Tejas, 
Aiio de 1716, entry for June 1. It is seen that this expedition, led by 
Saint Denis, did not by any means follow the “Old San Antonio Road” 
of later days. The original of this rare manuscript is in the Archivo 
General y Publico, Mexico. 

°Ibid., entries for May 28 and June 2. 

10 Pena, Derrotero de la Expedicion en la Provincia de los Texas, Mexico, 
1722. This is the original government print. The copy in the Hemorias de 
Nueva Espana, vol. 28, has numerous errors, and is there given a wrong 
title. I am indebted to the paper by Miss Eleanor Buckley on “The 
Aguayo Expedition” for the results of her study of Aguayo’s route. This 
paper was her master’s thesis written at the University of Texas, 1908-1909. 
Father Pichardo made a map of the route in 1811, which corresponds 
roughly to that made by Miss Buckley. 

u Ynforme al R. Discreo. de los PPs. Pres, y Misss. de Tejas en que 
piden salir al Rio de S. Xavier. H 

12 Bustillo y Zevallos, Memorial del Govor. Bustillos en contra de la fun- 
dacion de Sn. Xavier, May 28, 1746, paragraph 7; Cabello, Informe 1784 
13 Cabello, Ibid., par. 6. 

14 Ortiz, Satisfaccion de los Missioneros a las objecciones hechas por el 
Govr. Bustillos contra las fundaciones de. Sn. Xavier, 1746. This is a 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 329 


between the Colorado and the middle San Gabriel can readily 
believe the assertion. 

It is thus seen that in 1745, when the project of missions for 
the tribes of central Texas was broached, the merits of the San 
Xavier river and its surrounding country were not by any means 
unknown. Its natural advantages were many; its principal draw¬ 
back was its proximity to the Lipan country, beyond the rugged 
hills on the west. 

Jf.. First contact with the tribes of central Texas. —But what 
interested the missionary fathers in any region more than its fer¬ 
tility and beauty, of which they were extremely good judges, was 
its natives. In this connection, it may be remarked that without 
the writings of the Catholic missionaries our ethnological knowl¬ 
edge of many portions of America would be almost a blank. This 
would be true of central Texas in the eighteenth century. In the 
course of the passage of the Spaniards to and from eastern Texas 
and of missionary excursions from San Antonio, several tribes 
became known on either side of the Camino Real, in the region 
between the Colorado and the Trinity. Conspicuous among them 
were the four bands which played the chief part in the inception 
of the San Xavier missions, namely, the group called Rancheria 
Grande (Big Camp or Big Village), 15 the Mayeyes, the Deadoses, 
and the Yojuanes. 

Rancheria Grande was a most extraordinary aggregation. At 
its basis the principal tribe was the Hierbipiame, or Ervipiame, 16 
for whom a mission had been founded in 1698 between the Sabinas 
and the Rio Grande, about forty leagues northwest of Monclova. 17 
It will be interesting to note in passing that the name given to 
this first, as well as to the second and third missions founded for 
the Hierbipiame, was San Xavier. To just what territory the 
Hierbipiame were indigenous does not appear. In the formation 

memorandum of points by Father Ortiz and Father Espinosa in reply to 
certain objections raised to founding a mission on the San Xavier. 

15 These tribes were sometimes collectively called at San Antonio “the 
Eastern Indians.” 

10 See articles by Bolton on “Rancheria Grande” and “Ervipiame” in 
Hodge, Handbook of American Indians. 

1T Portillo, Apuntes para la Historia Antigua de Coahuila y Texas (Sal¬ 
tillo, 1888), pp. 269-271. These pages contain the autos of the founding 
of the mission, copied from the archives of Coahuila. The name given to 
the mission and pueblo was “San Francisco Xavier y Valle de Cristobal.” 


330 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

of Rancheria Grande there had been added to this tribe (1) the 
remains of numerous broken-down bands from near and even 
beyond the Rio Grande who had fled eastward and joined the 
Hierbipiame for defence against the Apache and to escape pun¬ 
ishment for injuries done the Spaniards of the interior, and (2) 
many apostate Indians from the missions at San Antonio and on 
the Rio Grande. Because of the prominence of the Hierbipiame 
in that group, it was sometimes called “Rancheria Grande de los 
Hierbipiames.” 18 

Rancheria Grande was mentioned as early as 1707, when Diego 
Ramon, commander at San Juan Bautista, set out to punish it 
for disturbances at the missions on the Rio Grande. 19 It was then 
said to be near the Colorado River, at that day called the San 
Marcos. Again, in 1714 Ramon secured from it apostates who 
had fled from the San Juan Bautista mission. 20 In 1716 the 
Ramon expedition passed through it north of Little River and 
two or three leagues west of the Brazos, apparently near modern 
Cameron. 21 According to Ramon it then contained more than 
two thousand souls. 22 In 1721 a chief of the Rancheria Grande, 
called Juan Rodriguez, was found by the Marquis de Aguayo at 
San Antonio, with a band of his people, asking for a mission. 
The Marquis took him as a guide as far as the Trinity River, 
where he found the major portion of his people mingling with 
the Bidais and Agdocas (Deadoses). Aguayo ordered the people 
of Rancheria Grande to retire across the Brazos, “where they were 
accustomed to live,” promising to establish a mission for them 
near San Antonio on his return thither. True to his promise, in 
1722 he founded for Juan Rodriguez and his band the mission of 
San Xavier de Xaxera, on the outskirts of San Antonio, where 
the mission of Concepcion now stands. 23 It endured, with little 
success, till 1726, when it was merged with that of San Antonio de 
Valero. 24 

“Communication of Father Paredes, July 12, 1729. K, leg. 19, doc. 19 
Archive of the College of Santa Cruz. 

“Diary, 1707. 

20 Ibid. 

21 Diaries of Espinosa and Ramon, 1716 (MSS.). 

22 Ramon, diary of 1716. 

23 Pena, Derrotero de la Expedition. 

tfbl ^ 6 x° lt<m ’ ‘ <S P anish Mission Records at San Antonio,” in The Quab- 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 331 


Though reduced in numerical strength by the drain made by 
the mission, Rancheria Grande continued to give much trouble 
to the missionaries, since it afforded a refuge for apostates from 
San Antonio, who must have tended to replenish its population. 
The missionaries complained that it was a veritable “Rochelle,” 
and they earnestly requested that it should be either destroyed or 
Christianized. Its pernicious influence was thus described in 1729 
by Fray Miguel de Paredes: 

Not only do they impede new conversions, but they also destroy 
the reductions already established. ... At present, Most 
Excellent Sir, since these Indians of the missions know that they 
have an open door, asylum, and protection in the Rancheria 
Grande, their flights have reached such an extreme that if their 
disorders are reprimanded or punished the least little bit, whether 
by the chiefs or by the missionaries, or if there should be any 
extraordinary labor—and many times without other cause than to 
seek their liberty—they flee to the said rancheria. 25 

It has been seen that down to Aguayo’s time this troublesome 
aggregation of Indians were “accustomed to live” west of the 
Brazos, near the Cross Timbers (Monte Grande). But pressure 
from the Apaches soon drove them to spend much of their time 
eastward of the Brazos. In testimony of this fact, Bustillo y 
Zavallos, who had been governor of Texas from 1732 to 1734, 
wrote in 1746 that “of Rancheria Grande there remained in my 
time only the name, for their abode being the Monte Grande, they 
had already, because of their diminutive forces, retired to live in 
the distance, between the Yojuanes and Acdozas,” 26 that is, be¬ 
tween the Trinity and the Brazos. This seems to have been their 
principal haunt in 1745, when our story begins. 

The habitat and movements of the Mayeyes were much the same 
as those of Rancheria Grande, in so far as those of either are 
known. In 1687 Joutel, La Salle’s companion, heard of the 
Meghy as a tribe living north of the Colorado somewhere near 
the place where the Spaniards later actually came into contact 
with the Mayeyes, 27 and it seems not improbable from the simi¬ 
larity of the names and locations that the two tribes were identical. 

^July 12, 1729. K, leg. 19, doc. 19, Arch. Coll. Santa Cruz. 

2G He says, “in the former time.” He may mean the administration 
preceding his own. Memorial, May 28, 1746, par. 4. 

27 Journal, in Margry, Decouvertes, III, 288. 


332 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

In 1727 Rivera encountered the Mayeyes at a spring called Puen- 
tezitas, fifteen leagues west of the junction of the two arms of the 
Brazos, that is, of the Little River with the main Brazos, and 
thirty-five leagues after crossing the Colorado. The place must 
have been somewhere near the San Gabriel River. 28 According to 
Bustillo y Zevallos, who was evidently speaking of them as he had 
known them in his day, the Mayeyes customarily came down from 
the Brazos de Dios to the Habasota (Navasota), and ranged from 
there to the Trinity. x4s he had seen them several times, he prob¬ 
ably spoke with authority. 29 A critical document now in the 
archive of the College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas, written anony¬ 
mously about 1748 by someone who had had wide experience in 
Texas, evidently a Zacatecan friar, says that the country of the 
Mayeyes was on the east of the Brazos, eighty leagues from San 
Antonio and twenty from the “place of San Xavier.” 30 The two 
designations agree essentially with each other and harmonize with 
the testimony of other documents. 

The Yojuane are less easily traced. They were a wandering 
Tonkawan band, as were the Mayeye, and their general history 
was much the same as the better known Tonkawa tribe. 31 They 
were mentioned by Casanas in 1691 as “Diu Juan,” in a list of 
enemies of the Hasinai. 32 In 1709 Fathers Espinosa and Olivares 
met a tribe called Yojuan near the Colorado River. 33 About 1714 
they destroyed the main Hasinai temple near the Angelina. 34 The 
Joyuan tribe met by Du Rivage in 1719 near the Red River above 
the Caddodacho seem to have been the Yojuane. 35 Later on the 
Yojuane were closely associated with the Mayeye and the Hier- 
bipiame, and for some time before 1745 they lived northward of 

28 Pena, Derrotero. 

29 Memorial, May 28, 1746. 

30 This document consists of a copy of the royal cedula of April 16, 1748, 
which authorizes the establishment of the San Xavier missions, and of 
critical comments on the tribes named therein. It is of great value for 
the tribal distribution of this region. I shall cite it as “Anonymous 
Commentary,” Arch. Coll. Zacatecas. 

^See Bolton, article on “Tonkawa” and “Yojuane,” in Hodge, Handbook 
of American Indians North of Mexico. 

32 Casanas, Relacibn, 1691. MS. 

33 01ivares, Diario, 1709. MS. 

34 Espinosa, Chronica Apostdlica, I, 424. 

35 La Harpe, Relation, in Margry, Decouvertes, III, 616. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 333 

these tribes between the Trinity and the Brazos. Mediavilla y 
Ascona, governor of Texas between 1727 and 1730, stated that 
he frequently saw them on the road to eastern Texas. Bustillo y 
Zevallos, his successor in office, said that they lived “to the north¬ 
west, up the Trinity River, far distant from them [the Deadoses 
and Mayeyes] and neighbors to a tribe of Apaches called los 
Melenudos.” Before the middle of the eighteenth century the 
hostility of the Yojuane toward the Hasinai seems to have ceased, 
for thereafter the two tribes frequently went together against the 
Apache. 

The sources for the history of the San Xavier missions estab¬ 
lish the already conjectured 36 identity of the Deadoses with the 
Agdocas of earlier times. The name is variously written Yacdo- 
cas, Yadosa, de Adozes, Doxsa, Deadoses, 37 etc. The same docu¬ 
ments also make it clear that the Deadoses were a branch of the 
Bidai-Orcoquiza linguistic group. 38 On this point the anonymous 
document in the archives at Zacatecas, cited just above, says 
“Yadocxa ought to be called Deadoses. This is a band of Yiday 
Indians who, being dismembered from its vast body, which has 
its movable abode between Trinidad and Sabinas Rivers, have 
lived for more than twenty years, for the sake of the trade afforded 
them by the transit of the Spaniards, on this (western) side of 
the River Trinidad, and, extending as far as Navasotoc, . • . 

are accustomed to join the Mayeyes, who reside in the thickets of 
the River Brassos de Dios.” According to the same document, 
the Deadoses were habitually forty leagues east of the Mayej^es. 39 
These statements harmonize with various other detached items of 
information. In 1714, for example, the Agdocas were said to be 
twelve leagues south of the Assinais (Hasinai), that is, in the 
country near the mouth of the Angelina River, 40 where Bidai con¬ 
tinued to live to a. much later date. In 1721, as has been seen, 
Aguayo found the Agdocas west of the Trinity,- mingled with 

36 By the present writer. 

37 Penicaut (1714) gives the name “Aquodoces” (Margry, Decouvertes, 
V, 504) ; Pena, 1721-1722, gives it “Agdocas” (Diario, in Mem. de Nueva 
Espana,” XXVIII, 31); Espinosa, 1746, “Yacdocas” (Chronica Apostol- 
ica ); Morfi (dr. 1781), “Igodosa” (Mem. Hist. Tex., II, 26). 

^Several years ago the present writer conjectured that this might be the 
case. See his card notes on Texas tribes, under “Deadoses.” 

39 Anonymous Commentary. 

40 Margry, Decouvertes, V, 504. 


334 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


Rancheria Grande. 41 They evidently had already begun to move 
westward. 

Bustillo bears testimony that both the Mayeyes and the Deadoses 
were in his day already succumbing to the principal enemy of the 
native American race, disease. He says: “Both of these tribes 
are small. I have seen them various times, the last being in 1734, 
when I left that province. I do not believe that they have in¬ 
creased since that time, because of the epidemics which they are 
accustomed to suffer and which they were suffering, of measles 
and smallpox, which are their sole destroyers.” In 1745 the four 
bands, Rancheria Grande, Mayeyes, Yojuanes, and Deadoses, were 
said to comprise 1228 persons. 42 

Other tribes intimately connected with the history of the San 
Xavier missions were the Bidai, of the lower Trinity River, and 
the Coco, a Karankawan tribe of the lower Colorado.* Early Span¬ 
ish contact with these tribes has been discussed by the present 
writer elsewhere, and will not need discussion here. 43 


II. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MISSIONS, 1745 

1. The petition of the four tribes .—The establishment of mis¬ 
sions for these tribes was due primarily to the zeal of Fray Mariano 
Francisco de los Dolores y Yiana, missionary at the mission of 
San Antonio de Valero. 1 He had come to Texas in the year 
1733, 2 and had made occasional visits to central Texas, now to 
recover apostates, and again in search of new tribes from which 


41 Pena, op. cit., 31. 


42 Memorial, May 28, 1746. 

43 See Bolton, “The Founding of Mission Rosario” in The Quarterly, X, 
113-139; and “Spanish Activities on the Lower Trinity River,” Ibid XVI 
339-377. 


/This priest signed his name Fr. Maria Ano Franco de los Dolores y 
Viana, though his associates and superiors always wrote it Fray Mariano. 
He has frequently been referred to in The Quarterly as Father Dolores! 

J In a memorial dated Jan. 22, 1757, he said that he entered Texas in 
1733, and began to journey northeast, east, and southeast. In a com¬ 
munication written in April, 1746, he said that he had been in Texas 13 
years (Escrito by Fray Mariano addressed to the governor of Texas, 
April 16, 1746). In a letter to the viceroy written March 13, 1849, lie 
said that lie had been engaged in the work seventeen years, by implica¬ 
tion, all the time in Texas). Father Ortiz wrote that Fray Mariano had 
had relations with the petitioning tribes before Bustillo y Zevallos left 
Texas, which was in 1734. (Satisfaccion de los Missioneros a las obiec- 

ciones hechas por el Gov. Bustillos contra las fundaciones de Sn. Xavier). 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 335 

to replenish the missions, ever in need of recruits because of de¬ 
sertions and the ravages of disease. In the course of these ex¬ 
peditions he had visited the Deadoses, Yojuanes, Mayeyes, and 
the Rancheria Grande. The precise details of these visits, unfor¬ 
tunately, have not appeared. We are told, however, that with 
some of the tribes he had contracted friendship as early as 1734. 3 
Presumably the first to be dealt with were the Indians of Rancheria 
Grande, since, as we have seen, with these the missionaries of San 
Antonio had frequent and early contact. We learn, again, that 
in 1741, when Fray Mariano accompanied governor Wintuisen to 
the Trinity, he carried presents to the Deadoses and the Mayeyes 
and tried to induce them to enter his mission; 4 and, again, that 
for some time before 1745 he had been visiting all of these tribes 
and they him, “either every year or nearly every year.” 5 Thus, 
contrary to what might be inferred from some of the documents, 
it is clear that a project to found missions for these f<W tribes 
w r as no sudden thought. 

But it was not till 1745 that matters came to a head. On the 
second of June of that year, after numerous unfulfilled promises, 
it would seem, four chiefs of the tribes in question, with thirteen 
followers, came to San Antonio and asked for a mission, request¬ 
ing that it should be in their own country, at a site which Fray 
Mariano should select. 6 

2. The appeals of Fray Mariano, June-July, 171^5 .—It hap¬ 
pened that just at that time the Commissary Visitor, Fray Fran¬ 
cisco Xavier Ortiz, was at the San Antonio missions on an official 
visitation. Accordingly, although he had already passed by the 
mission of San Antonio de Valero, on his way down the river, 
Fray Mariano embraced the opportunity and asked Father Ortiz 
to return, recommending that the desired missions should be 
established, with a presidio of thirty soldiers to protect the mis¬ 
sionaries from the Indians, and the latter from their enemy, the 
Apache. From such a step he prophesied great results. Not only 


3 Ortiz, Satisfaccion, fol. 1. 

^Anonymous Commentary, Arch. Coll. Guadalupe. 

5 Ortiz, op. tit. 

6 This is the story told by Father Mariano to Ortiz, June 13, 1745 (Copia 
de autos seguidos. Arch Coll. Santa Cruz, K, 6, 17) ; Francisco Xavier 
Marquez to the viceroy, Jan. 18, 1746. Ibid. Note that the later docu¬ 
ments imply that the Indians chose San Xavier at the outset. 


336 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

would these Indians be brought to a knowledge of the true God, 
but their friends, the Texas, who had so long been obdurate, would 
also be converted. Moreover, great advantages would result in 
case of war with France, for the Indians, if converted, could be 
relied upon to aid the Spaniards, whereas, at present, they would 
be sure to join the French. To avoid unnecessary expense, he rec¬ 
ommended that half of the garrison of Adaes be put under a cap¬ 
tain and assigned to the proposed new presidio. To make pos¬ 
sible the two or three missions that would be necessary for the 
1228 souls which the four tribes were reported to comprise, he 
recommended appealing to the king for the required initial sum 
and a suitable annuity thereafter. 7 

Father Ortiz granted the request that he return to the mission 
of Valero, and, while the Indians were still there, had their peti¬ 
tion formally examined by Thoribio de Urrutia, captain of the 
presidio, in the presence of the other officials. 8 We are told that 
Captain Urrutia tried to persuade the Indians to settle at San 
Antonio, where he would provide them a separate mission, but 
that they refused to go so far from their relatives, their lands, 
their friends, and their trade with the Texas, from whom they 
were accustomed to procure their weapons. Next, Captain Urrutia 
proceeded to test their sincerity, telling them that if they entered 
the mission they must be subordinate to the missionaries, labor in 
the fields, attend religious services, receive instruction, and fight 
the enemies of the Spaniards. When they consented to all this he 
promised, in the name of the king, to aid them against all their 
foes, and again they repeated their request for a padre to go with 
them to their country, see their people, and instruct them as to 
what they must do in preparation for a mission. 9 

In addition to the appeal made to Father Ortiz, Fray Mariano 
addressed one 10 to the guardian of his College, Fray Alonso 
Giraldo de Terreros, a zealous soul, who, a decade later, was to 
suffer martyrdom in Texas. In this appeal Father Mariano stated 
that, in view of the great number of Indians who would be likely 

7 Fray Mariano to Fray Ortiz, June 12, 1745. The numerical strength 
of the tribes was learned from the four chiefs (Copia de autos seo-uidos 
en el superior govierno.). 

8 K, leg., 6, No. 5, Arch. Coll. Santa Cruz. 

8 Arricivita, Cronica Serdfica, 323. 

10 Dated, July 26. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 


337 


to join the petitioning tribes, the opportunity of the College was 
the rarest it had ever had in Texas. 

According to the reports and the names of the unknown Kingdoms 
which there are in all that region, making a conservative estimate, 
at the lowest figure there would not fail to be more than six 
thousand souls who in time could be reduced. It would be a pity 
to lose this opportunity, which would lead to another equally 
holy. . . . It is a fact that on one of the occasions when I 

went inland, I came upon Indians of whom those which we have 
reduced had never heard at all. And thus the report which the 
Indians themselves give is made to appear credible. And even 
if it were not, it cannot be denied that, besides those who wish 
to be converted, there are large nations, none of which, we know, 
will ever become converted unless means be taken to establish 
missions for them in their own country or near to them, according 
as there are conveniences in the different places. 

Continuing, Fray Mariano suggested that Fray Diego Ximenez, 
secretary of the visitor and present with him at San Antonio, be 
sent to assist in the new work, and that the conduct of the matter 
before the viceroy be entrusted preferably to Father Ortiz, and if 
not to him, then to Father Ximenez. 11 

Father Espinosa, in his Chronica Apostolica, which was com¬ 
pleted in 1747 (though its title page bears the date 1746) 12 makes 
a statement which may furnish the real reason why the project 
of a mission for these tribes, which, as has been seen, had been 
known and dealt with for some time, came to a head just at the 
time when it did. He says that the mission of La Punta, or 
Lampazos, had just been secularized, and that the College wished 
to establish another in its place, and, therefore, promoted one on 
the San Xavier. As Father Espinosa was at the time chronicler 
of the College, just completing his now famous history, and as he 
took some part in the struggle for the San Xavier missions, there 
is good reason for accepting his explanation 13 as at least a part 
of the truth. One of the opponents of the project goes so far as 
to say, but evidently without foundation, that he believed that 

“Letter of Fray Mariano to the guardian, July 26, 1745, in Copia de 
autos seguidos en el superior govierno. For more detailed information 
relative to Fray Ximenes, see Ortiz, Yisita de las Missiones hecha, de 
orden de N. M. R. P. Commo. Gral. Fr. Juan Fogueras, por el P. Fr. 
Franco. Xavier Ortiz, en el ano 1745. 

12 For proof of this see Espinosa, Chronica Apostolica, 467. 

13 1 bid 


338 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


Father Ortiz’s visit to San Antonio was for no other purpose 
than to see about establishing these San Xavier missions. 14 

3. A new embassy and the selection of a site. —While waiting 
for help and for approval of his project, Fray Mariano did his 
best to keep the petitioners favorably disposed, and to prepare the 
way for the establishment of the hoped-for missions. Indeed, for 
more than a year he and his College labored without help from 
the central government, and still another year before that govern¬ 
ment could be induced to authorize the mission, although for much 
of that time an inchoate mission settlement was in actual exist¬ 
ence on the San Xavier. 

Before the visiting Indians returned to their homes, they had 
promised Fray Mariano that they would assemble their people at 
some specified place to await his coming at the beginning of the 
winter. When they departed they were accompanied by an escort 
of mission Indians, who returned in a short time reporting that 
the news carried by the chiefs had been joyfully received by the 
people of the tribes, and that a search for a site had already been 
begun. 15 This report was made before July 26, 1745. 

Some time later, just when does not appear, the petitioners sent 
to San Antonio a delegation who reported that a site had been 
selected, and told of “many other nations” which had promised 
to join them in the proposed missions. 16 The names of these 
tribes, as given in the autos reporting this visit—as yet the autos 
have not been found—are apparently those given later by Father 
Ortiz in his memorial to the king. 17 His list was as follows: 
Vidais, Caocos, Lacopseles, Anchoses, Tups, Atais, Apapax, Acop- 
seles, Cancepnes, Tancagues, Hisc'as, Naudis, Casos, Tanico, Quisis, 
Anathagua, Atasacneus, Pastates, Geotes, Atiasnogues, Taguacanas, 
Taguayas, “and others who subsequently asked for baptism.” 18 
Among these we recognize the Bidai, of the lower middle Trinity, 
who lived below the Deadoses; the Coco and the Tups, Karan- 

14 Anonymous Commentary, par. 3. 

13 Fray Mariano to the Guardian, July 26, 1745. 

36 0ur knowledge of this second visit of the Indians comes from the 
Memorial of Bustillo, dated May 28, 1746. 

"Memorial of Ortiz to the king, after Feb. 14, 1747. 

18 This list is copied in the royal cedula of April 16, 1748, granting the 
petition of Ortiz, the spelling of which I follow, instead of that of the 
copy of the Ortiz memorial. (Reales Cedula Vol. 68, 1748. Archivo 
General y Publico, Mexico). 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 


339 


kawan tribes of tire lower Colorado and the gulf coast; the ISTagui- 
dis, a little known branch of the Hasinai, of eastern Texas; the 
Tonkawa, Ivichai, Towakana, and Taovayas, tribes then all living 
on the upper Trinity, Brazos, and Red Rivers , 19 beyond the Hier- 
bipiames and Mayeyes; and the Tanico, a tribe near the Missis¬ 
sippi. The wide geographical distribution of these tribes might 
cause one to be suspicious of the genuineness of the report, but this 
doubt is lessened when we learn that later on a number of the tribes 
named actually became identified with the enterprise. The most 
that could be said in criticism of the report is that the outlook was 
perhaps regarded with a somewhat unwarranted optimism. 

After making suitable presents to the delegation, Fray Mariano 
set out with them, accompanied by some mission Indians and 
soldiers, to visit the petitioners in their homes, and to view the 
site which they had selected. The place, it seems, was beyond the 
first or the second arm of the Brazos. The journey was impeded 
by high waters, and Fray Mariano was forced to turn back. But 
he sent forward some of the soldiers and neophytes, who succeeded 
in reaching a gathering of Indians, of various tribes, who were 
awaiting them in the Monte Grande on the Brazos . 20 

1B For the identification of some of these tribes, see the Anonymous Com¬ 
mentary. 

20 The exact circumstances of the selection of the site are not quite clear. 
Some later statements make it appear that the San Xavier was designated 
at the outset, but putting all the evidence together, this does not seem to 
be the case. (1) In the two petitions of Fray Mariano nothing is said 
of the San Xavier, and it is distinctly intimated that the site was as yet 
unchosen, while emphasis is put upon the fact that the Indians desired a 
mission in their own country. This, we have seen, was characteristically 
beyond the Little and the Brazos rivers. (2) The story related above 
of Fray Mariano’s unsuccessful attempt to visit the site is given by both 
Bustillo and the Anonymous Commentary. While the former hints that 
there was some disappointment in regard to water facilities in the im¬ 
mediate country of the Indians, it gives the floods as the reason for 
the change of site. The words are as follows: “Tired of crossing so much 
water, since the Indians were waiting in the Monte Grande, and in order 
that the soldiers might return, they [the Indians] showed them the Rio 
de San Xavier.” (3) That the site was changed is definitely asserted 
by Fray Santa Ana, who, at the same time was president of the missions 
at San Antonio, but he gives as the reason the lack of water facilities 
in the immediate country of the Indians. In a letter written to the 
viceroy on June 24, 1748, he explains the increased demands by Fray 
Mariano for military protection at San Xavier by saying that at first 
the Indians had asked that the missions be in their own lands; that none of 
them “reside where they w 7 ould be exposed to the invasions of the 
Apaches,” and that, therefore, it was at first thought that thirty soldiers 


340 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


Now, it seems, on account of the difficulties of passing the high 
waters, the place which had been chosen was given up, and the 
soldiers were conducted to the San Xavier River, instead, and 
shown a site there. There are indications also that one of the 
reasons for a change of site was the discovery by the Indians that 
in their immediate country the necessary water facilities were 
lacking. This could hardly have referred to a lack of water, but 
rather to a topography unsuited to irrigation. 

On returning to San Antonio the soldiers reported that they had 
examined the site shown to them on the San Xavier and that they 
had found it satisfactory. Hereupon 21 new autos were drawn be¬ 
fore the captain and the cabildo, giving an account of the occur¬ 
rences just related, expressing a favorable opinion of the site 
chosen, asserting, as a warning, that the petitioners had all come 
armed with French guns, and giving assurance that "through this 
establishment of pueblos the malice of the Apache nation will be 
punished and the communication of the French nation will be pre¬ 
vented.” 22 

Jf. The beginnings of a tentative mission, January-April, 17J/-6. 

,—Various items of rather fragmentary information enable us to 
record the circumstances and to establish the date of the actual 
beginnings of tentative missionary work at San Xavier, both of 
which matters have hitherto been undetermined. 

True to his promise, at the coming of winter Fray Mariano 
went to meet the petitioners at the designated site, where we find 
him in January, 1746, accompanied by the alferez of the San 
Antonio garrison, a squad of soldiers, and some mission Indians 
(and, presumably, with oxen and agricultural implements), mak¬ 
ing preparations for the hoped-for missions. 23 Besides the orig¬ 
inal petitioners, he found at the site some of the Coco tribe, with 

would be enough; but that when it was later learned that suitable water 
facilities were lacking in their country, the Indians insisted on gathering 
on the San Xavier, which, being a site exposed to the Apaches, required 
more protection (Copia de autos seguidos en el superior govierno). 

“Or, possibly, after Fray Mariano’s first visit. 

“Bustillo, op. tit., par. 1. For a summary of the autos, see Bustillo, 
and for the petition of the College based on the autos, see an expediente 
in the Lamar Papers entitled “Erecion de la Mision [Presidio] de Sn. 
Xavier,” 3, and Terreros to Media villa, June 23, 1746. 

* 3 Fray Mariano tells us this in a document dated April 13, 1746. 
See also documents dated June 10 and 11, 1746, in Copia de Cartas del 
R. P. Guardn. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 341 


whom he had communicated in the previous October. They as¬ 
sisted in the preparations, promised to enter the missions, and 
returned to their native haunts for their families. 24 A mission 
site was chosen on the south side of the San Xavier River, now 
the San Gabriel, a short distance above its junction with the 
Arroyo de las Animas, now Brushy Creek. 25 Sometime before 
April 13, evidently, Father Mariano wrote to his president at San 
Antonio that, since the good intentions of the Indians had proved 
constant, “he had founded a mission to attract them, on the banks 
of the San Xavier, 26 in which enterprise he had spent all he pos¬ 
sessed; that the place was most fertile, and its fields spacious and 
watered with good and plentiful water, that he had planted pota¬ 
toes, and that though he had lost [some], he still had enough for 
another planting.” 27 The mission was regarded as having been 
“founded,” therefore, between January and April 13, 1746. Thus 
far, however, the founding seems to have consisted in little more 
than the selection of the site and the planting of crops. It had 
not yet been duly solemnized. 

Before the middle of April, Fray Mariano returned to San 
Antonio, but he left some mission Indians from the latter place 
in charge, to plant and care for crops with which to support the 
prospective neophytes. When he departed he promised the as¬ 
sembled Indians that he would return with Spanish settlers and 
missionaries. 28 

The injury to the missionary cause which the fathers frequently 
had to suffer at the hands of the military authorities is illustrated 
at this point by Father Mariano’s experience with the Cocos. 29 

24 See documents cited in note 23. 

25 For the location of the site, see page 323 and map. 

2C Fray Mariano says that “many of them lacked even the leaves of the 
trees to cover their shame.” Communication of April 16, 1746. 

27 Erecion, 5, is the authority for this assertion. It is quite clear that 
the letter referred to must have been written during Father Mariano’s 
first stay at the San Xavier, which ended before April 13, for he was in 
San Antonio thenceforward till June 11. The facts stated above are 
referred to in a document written near Queretaro on June 28. 
28 Testimony concerning the Cocos, April 13, 1746. 

29 In October, 1745, he had communicated with this tribe, who lived on the 
lower Colorado, through the Bidais. Just at this time Capt. Orobio 
Bazterra, of Bahia, was about to undertake his expedition to the lower 
Trinity to look for a rumored settlement of the French. The Bidais, 
hearing that the expedition was to be directed against the Cocos, sent a 
delegation to San Antonio, in the middle of October, to ask Father Mariano 


342 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

As some members of this tribe were returning from San Xavier 
for their families, they were attacked, apparently without provo¬ 
cation, by Captain Orobio Bazterra, of Bahia, who was on his 
return from the lower Trinity, whither he had been to reconnoiter 
French traders. 30 In the course of the trouble two of the Cocos 
were killed and others captured. On receiving the news of the 
occurrence on April 13, Fathers Mariano and Santa Ana com¬ 
plained to Captain Urrutia, saying that they feared that the mis¬ 
sion project would be sadly interfered with and that even an out¬ 
break might result unless something were done, and requested that 
Orobio should be required at once to release the captives. Cap¬ 
tain Urrutia issued the order and also sent to San Xavier a dele¬ 
gation of mission Indians to make explanations and to help keep 
the peace. The result seems to have been satisfactory, for later 
on the Cocos entered one of the missions at San Xavier, as we 
shall see. 31 

Between April and June, evidently, there were no missionaries 
at San Xavier, for early in the latter month a delegation of In¬ 
dians went from there to San Antonio again to urge Father 
Mariano to return with the promised friars and supplies. Four 
days later the “principal chief of all the nations” went from 
another direction to San Antonio to complain of the delay in 
sending them missionaries. Ethnologists would like to know to 
what tribe the principal chief belonged, but the information does 
not appear. Fray Mariano took this occasion to send a new 
appeal for help, predicting that the Indians could not be expected 
to wait longer than till October before giving up in disgust. 32 

to request Orobio not to harm the Cocos. He did so, and took occasion 
also to ask Orobio to take the Xaranames, who were living with the Cocos, 
back to their mission at Bahia. In order that the Cocos might not be¬ 
come entangled in the trouble likely to ensue, he sent to them a request 
that they should separate from the Xaraname§. No doubt lie also told 
them of the San Xavier mission project, for a number of them met him 
at San Xavier and agreed to enter the mission there. (Communication 
of April 16, 1746.) 

30 See Bolton, “Spanish Activities on the Lower Trinity River,” in 
The Quarterly, XVI, 339-377. 

31 Docs. of April 13, 15, and 16, concerning the killing of two Cocos by 
Orobio. 

32 Fray Mariano wrote to the guardian of his college the following 
account of the event and of his helplessness to carry out his heart’s 
desire: “I would gladly refrain from further molesting your attention, 
for I assume that you are sufficiently occupied, but, knowing that these 


343 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel Fiver 

Meanwhile, the crops had been cared for by the new tribes, who 
had remained in the vicinity in spite of Fray Mariano’s absence. 33 

Sometime during the summer the construction of mission build¬ 
ings was begun. We learn this fact from an undated document 
of this year by Father Ortiz, who writes that “it appears from 
other letters that the said father [Mariano] has already begun a 
church, habitation, and other things necessary, in order that the 
religious may live there, and that they have planted maize, pota¬ 
toes, and other grains, for which he took from his mission of San 
Antonio forty cargoes, yokes of oxen, Indian workmen, and others 
lo escort him, besides the soldiers.” 34 Before January 16, 1747, 
Father Mariano had spent $2262.50 in supporting and entertain¬ 
ing the Indians, and by February, 1747, the sum had increased by 
$5083.50. 

In the spring of 1747 some of the prospective neophytes, twelve 
in number, were at San Antonio, probably to complain again of 
delay. At any rate, near the end of March Fray Mariano sent 
back with them some Indians from the missions of Valero and 

people understand the language of hands better than that of tongues, and 
are more easily subdued by gifts than by words, I am compelled by my 
great poverty not to lose any opportunity to the end that the promptest 
provision may be undertaken there, and, in case delay is necessary, that 
assistance with the most urgent expenses may be solicited, for our 
lack of everything makes it impossible to send more now to the multitude 
of Indians which are to be reduced. This and what I noted in my former 
[letter] oblige me to inform you that on the fourth day of June there 
came to this mission of San Antonio some of the new Indians, and that 
on the eighth the principal chief of all the Nations came from a different 
direction to inform me that a multitude of people have gathered on 
various occasions to await me with the Fathers and Spaniards to establish 
missions for them, but, seeing my delay and being dissatisfied at the 
lack of provisions, they have again deserted. They told me that grass 
having grown up in the crops, the chiefs were obliged to go and assemble 
their tribes to clean them, aside from the fact that they are maintaining 
the post, not having been made cowards by fear of the Apaches, who had 
killed five Indians in that neighborhood, and that I should send them 
maize, tobacco and other dogas which they needed, for which purpose and 
the transportation of which I asked for mules. Since I was in San 
Xavier I have concluded that the greatest delay would be until October, 
for in more than eight months there would be sufficient time.’' 

“Urrutia, certificates of June 10, 1746, in Copia de Cartes del R. P. 
Guardn.; Fray Mariano to the guardian, June 11, 1746, Ibid.; Fray 
Benito de Santa Ana to Urrutia, April 15, 1746, in Dos testimonies de 
diligencies, sobre los Yndios Cocos; also related documents of April 13 
and April 16, 1746. 

34 Satisfaccion de los Missioneros a las objectiones hechas por el Govr. 
Bustillos. This must have been in 1746, for then was the time when the 
Bustillo fight was on. 


344 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

Concepcion, together with a Spaniard, named Eusebio Pruneda. 
Pruneda was provided with seed grain, and was instructed to 
plant crops and to “serve as a diversion for the people” until the 
viceroy should give the necessary orders for proceeding regularly. 
He found at San Xavier “Deadoses, Cocos, and Yojuanes.” They 
welcomed him and turned in to help plant the crops, the said 
Indians working in person”—a fact that was regarded as note¬ 
worthy. When half through with the task, however, Pruneda’s en¬ 
terprise was broken up by the Apaches. A band of twenty-two Cocos 
who had been sent out to secure buffalo meat for the assemblage 
met the enemy near by, fought with them, and killed one. But 
seeing or learning of “many rancherias” of Apaches close at hand, 
at Parage de las Animas (evidently on Brushy Creek) they re¬ 
turned to San Xavier, where the whole body of Indians remained 
three days prepared for battle. At the end of that time, fearing 
an attack by a larger force of the enemy, and “fearful of the ruin 
which they might wreak upon them,” the Cocos withdrew to the 
lower Trinity, designating a place where they might be found. Be¬ 
fore leaving they sent word by Pruneda to Father Mariano that he 
had deceived them by his promises to send missionaries and other 
Spaniards; that until these should be forthcoming they would 
seek their own safety by retiring; but that when they should be 
provided not only would they be prompt to return, but several 
other tribes from “muy adentro” (far in the interior) whom 
Father Mariano had not seen, would come also. 35 

It would seem that during a part of this time Fray Mariano 
had with him two assisting missionaries, for later on the College 
of Santa Cruz asked for reimbursement for the stipend paid three 
missionaries for work at San Xavier during the full years of 1746 
and 1747. It appears, however, that during this period mission¬ 
aries were at San Xavier at most only intermittently. One of the 
friars who assisted Father Mariano during this time was Mariano 
de Anda y Altamirano, a missionary formerly of the College of 
Zacatecas, who had served both at the Bahia mission and at San 
Miguel de ios Adaes. In the summer of 1747, while at San 
Xavier, he was ordered to hasten to Mexico to assist in securing 
the desired license for the missions. He passed through Saltillo 

35 Memorial del Pe. Anda al Exmo Sor Virrey sobre Sn. Xavier. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 345 

on his way south in July, 36 a fact which gives us a clue to the 
approximate time of his departure. 

We have thus been able to piece together some fragments of 
information concerning the circumstances of the beginnings of 
missionary work on the San Xavier; but practically all that we 
know of actual operations there between June, 1746, and February, 
1748, is that the missionaries were there, from time to time at 
least, catechising and feeding the Indians, until the project should 
be definitely authorized and supported, and something permanent 
undertaken. 

III. THE STRUGGLE FOR AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH THE MISSIONS 
AND FOR A PRESIDIO 

1. The approval of the college and of the fiscal obtained. —Mean¬ 
while affairs were taking their slow and uncertain course in Mex¬ 
ico. If one does not care to follow the tedious details of the per¬ 
sistent struggle made by Father Mariano and the College of Santa 
Cruz for authority from the civil government to found the desired 
missions, for a presidio to protect them, and for funds to support 
them, he will do well to pass this chapter by. But as a monument 
to the zeal and the dogged fighting qualities of the Franciscans, 
and as a study in actual government in the frontier provinces of 
Xew Spain, the struggle deserves to be faithfully and somewhat 
fully recorded. 

On leaving San Antonio in the summer of 1745, Father Ortiz 
carried with him written evidence of all that had occurred there 
relative to the request of the tribes for missions. 1 He evidently 
did not reach his college at Queretaro until late in the fall, for the 
report of his visitation was certified by his secretary at La Punta, 
or Lampazos, on October ll. 2 The College heartily approved the 
plan of Father Mariano, and, as he had suggested, entrusted the 

36 This account is based on an escrito presented by Father Mariano to 
Urrutia, telling of the event, May 4, 1747; the sworn declaration of 
Pruneda, of the same date; a diligencia, or opinion given by the cabildo, 
justicia, and regimiento of the villa of San Fernando, together with the 
officers of the presidio of San Antonio de B6xar, May 10, 1747. The story 
was confirmed by ten Cocos who went to San Antonio on May 7. (All 
in Dos peticiones del P. Fr. Mariano sobre los Yndios de Sn. Xavr. ano 
de 1747.) 

x Arricivita, Cronica, 323. 

2 Visita de las Missiones. 


346 The Southvjestern Historical Quarterly 

conduct of it before the viceroy to Father Ortiz, who, through his 
representative, Francisco Xavier Marques, presented the two let¬ 
ters of Fray Mariano, and besought the viceroy’s patronage for the 
enterprise. This was on or before January 18, and on that day 
the matter was referred, in the regular routine of such affairs, to 
the royal fiscal, Don Pedro Vedoya. 3 Just a month later this 
official advised the viceroy to secure, before deciding so important 
a matter, from the governor of Texas, the officials of San Antonio, 
and the commissary general of missions, who was then at the Col¬ 
lege at San Fernando, “detailed information regarding the advan¬ 
tages and the need of increasing missions and missionaries in those 
places, the nations named in the two letters, the distances 
from the presidios of San Antonio de Valero and los Adaes, 
and the direction to each.” On the same day the viceroy ordered 
that Vedoya’s advice should be acted upon. 4 

Before these orders could be complied with, the College pre¬ 
sented a new memorial based on later news from Texas and urg¬ 
ing haste. It told of the additional tribes that had offered to 
enter the missions, reported that the site selected was satisfactory, 
and asked for the establishment, in addition to missions, of a 
presidio of at least fifty soldiers to withstand the warlike Apaches 
and to cut off their trade with the French. 5 

The matter was again sent to the fiscal, and on March 28 he, 
satisfied with the evidence produced and the importance of haste 
while the Indians were in the right frame of mind, gave his ap¬ 
proval to the project. He proposed that for the present, until a 
larger number of Indians should congregate, two or three mis¬ 
sions should be established and supplied; and that, in order to 
avoid additional expense for their maintenance, the garrison of 
Boca de Leones and the presidio of Cerralvo, in Nuevo Leon, 
should be extinguished. To provide defence for the missions and 
for the settlement of Spaniards who it was hoped might locate 

3 Viceroy’s decree of this date, endorsed on the memorial of Marquez. 

4 Dictamen fiscal, Feb. 18, 1746, and viceroy’s decree of the same date. 
These decrees, the letters of Fray Mariano, and the memorial of Marquez, 
constitute “Copia de autos seguidos en el superior govierno.” 

5 The memorial was evidently based on the new autos drawn at San 
Antonio after the second visit of the petitioning tribes and drawn with 
a knowledge of the decree of February 18, therefore after that date. My 
knowledge of the memorial comes from the summary in Erecion de la 
Mision de Sn. Xavier. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 347 

near them, instead of approving Fray Mariano’s plan of dividing 
the garrison of Los Adaes he recommended transferring to San 
Xavier the presidio of Santa Rosa del Sacramento, of Coahuila/ 4 

Phis proposal of Yedoya to rob Peter to pay Paul, like that of 
Father Mariano, was altogether characteristic. They are but sin¬ 
gle examples of a policy widely practiced by the Spanish govern¬ 
ment on the northern frontier of New Spain. The government 
was always “hard up,” and vet was desirous of distributing funds 
and forces where they were most needed. Demands for protection 
against the Indians and for money to aid the missionaries and 
colonists were multitudinous. Consequently, the officials were 
ever under the necessity of cutting off here in order to piece out 
or patch on there. The truth is, therefore, that many of the new 
enterprises of the eighteenth century represent rather transfer^ of 
effort from one scene to another than real expansion. Actual in¬ 
crease in annual expenditure was in reality slight, or even tended 
to decrease. 6 7 

2. Opposition by Bustillo y Zevallos s May , 17^6. —Yedoya’s 
dictamen was referred to the auditor de guerra, the Marques de 
Altamira. He, in turn, on April 13, recommended that an opinion 
on all the matters involved should be obtained from Juan Antonio 
Bustillo y Zevallos, at the time alcalde* ordinario of the City of 
Mexico. 8 Bustillo had been twelve years in Texas, seven of them 
as captain of the presidio of Loreto, or Bahia del Espiritu Santo, 
and three as governor of the province. As captain at Bahia he 
had assisted in the transfer of the Queretaran missions from 
eastern Texas to San Antonio. His administration as governor 


6 My knowledge of this dictamen is gained from the summaries contained 
in the memorial of Bustillo y Zevallos and Erecion de la Mision de Sn. 
Xavier. The former is in some respects the clearer as to the points of the 
dictamen. 

7 'Thus, the founding of the mission of San Antonio de Valero in 1718, 
considered in one light, was but the transfer of that of San Francisco 
Solano from the Rio Grande to the San Antonio. The establishment of 
the mission on the Guadalupe above Victoria in 1736 and that on the 
lower San Antonio in 1749 were but two transfers of the mission of 
Espiritu Santo from the Gulf coast. The establishment of the missions 
of San Juan Capistrano, Nuestra Senora de la Purlsima Concepcidn, and 
San Francisco de la Espada at San Antonio in 1731, was in reality a 
transfer of three missions thither from eastern Texas. Finally, the es¬ 
tablishment of the San Saba mission was but the transfer to another site 
of the missions established at San Xavier. Numerous other examples 
might readily be cited. 

8 Erecion de la Mision de Sn. Xavier, 5; Bustillo, Memorial, par. 3. 


348 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

had been notable for the settlement of the Canary Islanders at 
San Antonio and for a campaign to the San Xavier and the San 
Saba Rivers led by himself in 1732 against the Apaches. 9 Alta- 
mira’s advice was followed by the viceroy, who in a decree of 
April 18 requested Bustillo to make the desired report. 10 

The opposition to the San Xavier mission project offered by 
Bustillo in his memorial of May 28 was the focal point of much 
of the tedious discussion of the matter which followed. 11 He 
began by paying a generous tribute to the zeal of the missionaries 
of Queretaro in the northeastern provinces and reviewing the his¬ 
tory of the San Xavier matter to date. Then he proceeded to 
present objections to nearly every point which had been raised. 
According to him, the country along the highway between San 
Antonio and the Trinity was occupied by only the two small tribes 
of the Mayeyes and the Deadoses, The Yojuanes lived far up the 
Trinity to the northwest, and the Eancheria Grande, now little 
more than a name, between the Deadoses and Yojuanes. All of 
these tribes were now beyond the Brazos, and by no means close to 
the San Xavier, while they were applying for missions merely in 
order to get the material benefits, “since they will never accept 
the principal without the accessories.” 12 The Yidais might some 
day be reduced, but, because of their barbarity and their plentiful 
supply of food, he doubted very much whether their reduction 
could be speedily effected. The Karankawan tribes of the coast 13 
could never be subjected to mission influence, a fact which had 
been proved by the failure of his own efforts and those of the mis¬ 
sionaries covering many years. He doubted the feasibility of irri¬ 
gating the lands of the San Xavier, because he had camped on it 
three days during his campaign of 1732 without noticing any 
facilities for irrigating ditches. Indeed, he had reported this 
opinion in December, 1744, when settlement on the San Xavier 


“For an account of this campaign see “Apache Relations in Texas, 
1718-1750,” by W. E. Dunn, The Quartebly, XIV, 225-237: Bonilla, 
“Breve Compendio,” Ibid., VIII. 41-42. 

“Bustillo, Memorial, par. 3. 

Memorial del Govr. Bustillos en contra de la fundacion de Sr. Javier 
presentado al exmo. Sor Virrey. May 28, 1746. 

12 0n this point he was certainly borne out by the facts of missionarv 
history among the wild tribes. 

“The Carancaguases, Cocos, Cujanes, Guapites, and Cujanes. 


349 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

was being contemplated. As an example of the ease with which 
one could be mistaken on such matters without adequate informa¬ 
tion, he said, with truth, one had only to remember the disappoint¬ 
ment of the missionaries in 1730 when they had attempted to 
establish on the San Marcos the missions removed from the east. 

Moreover, said Bustillo, the San Xavier River was in a dan¬ 
gerous location, being on the highway by which the Apaches sallied 
forth from their hills in the west. As to the possession of French 
guns by the petitioning tribes, they had not gotten them directly 
from the French, but from the Texas, who were the middlemen 
in this trade. The French themselves had never entered so far 
into the interior. The presidio of Los Adaes could not be reduced 
without great danger to the eastern frontier, and if any of the 
soldiers were to be taken away they might much better be stationed 
at Cadodachos, where the French had so ]ong had an establish¬ 
ment. Adaes was the capital of the province, and should be the 
residence of the governors. The only reason why governors had 
lived at San Antonio was to avoid the hard life at the frontier 
post. On the other hand, the garrisons at Cerralvo, Boca de 
Leones, and Sacramento were all needed in their respective places, 
as a defence against the Tobosos and Jumanes, and besides, there 
was more hope of establishing a settlement of Spaniards at the last 
named place than there ever could be at San Xavier. 

After all these objections to the San Xavier plan, however, 
Bustillo was ready with a substitute. The four tribes in question 
and the others which had been named, were, he said, nearer to 
“Texas” 14 than to San Antonio. Why not establish a mission for 
some of the petitioners at the village of San Pedro de los Nabe- 
daches, as an example to the Xabedache tribe; and another at the 
Avnais village called El Loco, between the Angelina and Xacog- 
doches? “In this way,” he concluded, “three desirable ends, in 
my opinion, will be secured. First, that the moving of the Pre¬ 
sidio del Sacramento may be dispensed with; second, that the 
Reverend Fathers may realize the fruit of their desire, and the 
Indians the wish which it is said they have manifested; third, 
and more important, that there may be restored to the poor Texas 
the consolation which has been taken away from them. Indeed, 

]4 At this date the term “Texas,” as a territorial designation, was still 
often restricted to what is now eastern Texas, then the country of the 
Texas, or Hasinai Indians. 


350 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

I am most certain that they will receive it with notable rejoicing, 
for many times I have seen them lament with tears the fact that 
they were deserted—not that I should say for this reason that 
they were weeping for the lack of access to our Holy Faith, for 
none of the Indians with whom I have communicated give this 
reason, but rather those of intercourse and of trade in their 
products.” 15 

Withal, it would seem that Bustillo was a man of more than 
ordinarily sound sense and of candor. His experience with the bar¬ 
barian Indians had taught him their most usual motives to a first 
profession of love for Christianity. 

3. Rebuttal by Mediavilla and the College .—Again the matter 
went to the auditor. With the memorial of Bustillo was sent the 
news from San Antonio that the Indians had proved constant in 
their desires; that Fray Mariano had actually founded for them a 
mission and planted crops on the banks of the San Xavier ; that 
the place was extremely fertile and well watered, and that Father 
Mariano had spent his all on the work. 16 Hereupon, at the audi¬ 
tor’s instance, Father Ortiz was called upon for a reply to Bus- 
tillo’s objections. 17 

To prepare an answer, the College called into requisition a gun 
of like calibre, another ex-governor of Texas, indeed, Don Melchor 
Mediavilla v Ascona, who was then at Hacienda de Galera y 
Apaseo. 18 Mediavilla had preceded Bustillo as governor of the 
province. He had been in office at the time of Rivera’s inspection 
in 1727, had sided with the missionaries in their opposition to 
that official’s recommendation to reduce the Texas garrisons, and 
had supported their appeal in 1729 to be allowed to retire from 
eastern Texas. It was for these actions, according to Bonilla, 
that he had been removed from office in 1731. 19 Evidently the 
College expected hearty support from him, and it was not dis¬ 
appointed. 

Fray Alonzo Giraldo de Terreros, at the time guardian of the 

“Memorial, par. 19. 

“Erecion, 5. 

“Erecion, 6. The opinion of the auditor and the viceroy’s decree carry¬ 
ing it out must have fallen between the date of Bustillo’s memorial and 
June 23, when the opinion of Mediavilla was asked by the College. 

“Bonilla, “Breve Compendio,” The Quarterly, VIII, 41. 

“Copia de autos seguidos. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 351 


College, wrote to Mediavilla relative to the matter on June 23. 20 
In his reply, made at his hacienda on June 28, Mediavilla was as 
emphatic in his advocacy of the San Xavier project as Bustillo 
had been in his opposition to it. He said that he knew from per¬ 
sonal acquaintance with them that the four tribes in question were 
docile, and that he believed them to be “domesticable.” As they 
lived near the San Xavier, they could easily be taken there and 
settled. For such a purpose this river was the best place in the 
province, having good water facilities and fertile lands. Bustillo, 
he said, could hardly be taken as an authority on this point, as 
he had crossed the Fiver near the Brazos, and not near the pro¬ 
posed site; besides, he was rather frightened while in its vicinity 
on his campaign, and could not have been expected to make care¬ 
ful observations. As to taking the Yojuanes and other tribes in 
question to San Pedro and the El Loco settlement, this was im¬ 
practicable, for to say nothing of other difficulties, they would be 
unwelcome, since they had different rites and customs from those 
of the Texas. On the other hand,—and the delightful inconsis¬ 
tency did not disturb him—it would be most easy to settle on the 
San Xavier not only the petitioners, but also .the Texas and the 
Xabedache, who, as Bustillo had said with truth, greatly lamented 
the departure of the missionaries from their midst. But Bustillo 
was wrong, he said, in supposing that the Yojuanes and others 
did not trade directly with the French, for, as a matter of fact, 
they were visited regularly by traders who came by way of Cado- 
dachos and the Texas. Indeed, entry was so easy that in 1725 
five hundred French soldiers ( genizaros ) had penetrated the coun¬ 
try for a distance of ninety leagues, looking for a rumored mine 
on the Trinity, and had returned by the same route without even 
being molested. 21 It was clear, therefore, if for these reasons 
alone, that the province needed the protection of another presidio, 
whereas those of Sacramento and Cerralvo were not needed where 
they were, and were at best serving only a temporal purpose. Well 
might they be taken to the San Xavier to serve so important a 
spiritual end. 

Supported by Mediavilla’s opinion and a paper of similar tenor 

20 K, leg. 6, No. 15, Archive of the College of Santa Cruz de Queretaro, 
The Erecion gives the date of Media villa’s letter as June 21, but this is 
evidently incorrect. 

21 The present writer does not know to what event Mediavilla alludes. 


352 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

written by Fray Isidro Felix de Espinosa, who had been for sev¬ 
eral years president of the Queretaran missions of eastern Texas, 22 
Father Ortiz prepared his answer. It was dated at the College of 
San Fernando on July 30. His reliance was mainly on the opinion 
of Mediavilla, which he submitted with his reply. Father Ortiz 
himself added to the discussion little that was new. 23 

Upon receipt of these opinions, the autos were remanded by the 
viceroy to the fiscal. This official was of the opinion that Bustiilo 
was completely worsted in the argument, and, considering that 
he had no reason to change his original views, but, rather, strong 
additional ones for maintaining them, he reiterated his opinion 
of March 28. 24 

Jf. Delay clue to the undertakings of Escandon .—Now arose 
a new cause or excuse for delay. The king had a short time pre¬ 
viously charged the viceroy with the pacification and colonization 
of the coast country between Tampico and Bahia del Espiritu 
Santo, the last portion of the Gulf coast to receive attention by 
the Spaniards. To effect this important task, Jose de Escandon, 
Count of Sierra Gorda, was appointed by the viceroy on Septem¬ 
ber 6, 1746. To enable him to explore, preliminary to colonizing, 
the large stretch of country assigned to him, Escandon asked the 
aid of detachments from the garrisons at Adaes, Bahia, Sacra¬ 
mento, Monclova, Cerralvo, and Boca de Leones. 25 In view of 
these facts, the auditor de guerra gave the opinion 26 that with the 
garrisons thus occupied, none of them could be spared for the 
proposed San Xavier missions. He recurred, therefore, to his 
former opinion that neither could the presidio of Sacramento be 


22 Apuntes que dio el R. P. Fr. Ysidro, undated, in Satisfacion de los 
Missioneros a las objecciones. One paper drawn by Father Ortiz seems 
to have been a preliminary outline of a reply and not to have been pre¬ 
sented. The copy which I have seen contains no date, salutation, or 
signature, but is labeled, Respuesta del Pe. Ortiz. 

23 Memorial del R. P. Ortiz al Exmo. Sor. Virrey exponiendo las razones 
para fundar en Sn. Xavier, ano de 1746. The memorial is signed also by 
Fray Alnso Giraldo de Terreros, guardian of the college, Fray Mathias 
Saenz de San Antonio, prefect of missions, Espinosa, and Fray Pedro 
P6rez de Mesqula, all of whom had served in the missions of the northern 
frontier. 

24 Erecion, 7. The date of giving this opinion does not appear, but it was 
between July 30 and September 24. 

r 25 See Bolton, “The Founding of Mission Rosario,” in The Quarterly, 
X, 118-122, for a sketch of the plans of EscandCn. See also Erecion, p. 7. 

2ft The date was September 24. See Erecion, 12. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 3o3 


moved nor a new one be erected, and recommended that Father 
Ortiz be asked to propose some other means of securing the end so 
much desired. 27 

5. New plans proposed by Father Ortiz.—On September 28 
the auditor’s opinion was sent to Father Ortiz, and on October 10 
he was ready with his reply. With the courage of convictions that 
usually marked^these frontier missionaries, he dared to question 
the judgment of the auditor on matters of state, insisting that the 
garrisons of Sacramento, Coahuila, Boca de Leones, and Cerralvo 
were unnecessa^, and slyly affirming that they could be diverted 
either to take part in the Escandon enterprise or to protect the 
proposed missions at San Xavier. Since a suggestion had been 
asked for, he submitted two alternative plans. One was for a vol¬ 
unteer civil colony, the other for a presidio which should become 
a civil settlement after a term of years. The first plan was to 
use the funds now being spent in supporting the Sacramento gar¬ 
rison, for the maintenance of one hundred volunteer settlers at 
San Xavier, assigning them lands, providing them with an initial 
outfit, and maintaining them for a term of eight years, after which 
they might be expected to support themselves. This would make 
a garrison unnecessary. The second alternative plan was that the 
company at Sacramento, or another of equal strength, should be 
maintained at San Xavier for a term of years, with the obligation 
to remain thereafter as colonists, having been supplied during 
their period of service with the means of pursuing agriculture. 
In either way, he said, a substantial village or city of Spaniards 
would be established at the end of ten years, while the missions 
would meanwhile have the necessary protection. It will be seen 
that both of these suggestions involved the use, for the defence of 
San Xavier, of the funds then being spent in Sacramento, and 
could hardly be regarded as entirely new plans, or greatly dif¬ 
ferent from that of the fiscal. 

Finally, in order that the Indians now gathered at San Xavier 
might be kept friendly and retained at the spot, Father Ortiz 

27 For a summary of this opinion, see Erecion, 7; for the date, see Ibid., 
12. It is not absolutely certain that the two opinions referred to are 
identical, but of this there seems little doubt. For more light on the 
contents, see the memorial by Ortiz, October 10, 1746, in response to the 
new request. The autograph copy of this document has no title, but a 
copy of it is labeled “Instancia, y razones representadas al exmo. Sor 
Virrey para la fundacion de Sn. Xavier.” 


354 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

requested that, while the fate of the project was being decided, a 
sum of money should be assigned from the royal treasury for the 
purchase of presents and food, for “the eagerness ( morion) of the 
Indians is such that the like was never before witnessed, and 
. . . if this enterprise should fail ... we do not know 

what would happen/' 128 

Notwithstanding the suggestion of Father Ortiz, the advice of 
the auditor prevailed, and, in view of the operations of Escandon, 29 
the viceroy ordered all discussion of the matter suspended. The 
date of the order was apparently February 1, 1747. That Escan- 
don’s projects were the cause of the viceroy’s withholding his 
decision is clearly stated in his dispatches of February 14 and 
July 27. 

6. Tentative approval by the viceroy: funds and a temporary 
garrison authorized .—Nevertheless, the viceroy and the auditor 
were sufficiently convinced of its desirability to give the San 
Xavier project tentative support. On February 1, 1747, 30 as a 
result of another escrito from Father Ortiz, and in conformity 31 
with a recommendation of the auditor made on January 28, 
the viceroy ordered that the 2262-J pesos which had already 
been spent by Fray Mariano in attracting and maintaining 
the Indians at San Xavier should be repaid, and on February 14, 
in order to prevent the neophytes from deserting whilst the Seno 
Mexicano was being inspected, to protect them from the Apache, 
and to aid the missionaries in founding the settlement, he ordered 
the governor to send at once to San Xavier ten soldiers from Adaes 
and twelve from Bexar. 32 . 

“Father Ortiz to the viceroy, Oct. 10, 1746, “Instancia, y razones.” 

“The date of this order was Feb. 1, 1747. See p. 361, note 47. 

“The date Feb. 1, 1747, is fixed by K, leg. 6, Nos. 5 y 11, Arch. Coll. 
Santa Cruz; K, leg. 19, No. 67 is indefinite but corroborates the opinion. 

“On January 16, 1747, Father Ortiz presented to the viceroy an escrito 
which he concluded by asking for the repayment to the College of the 2262 
pesos 4 towines already spent in attracting the Indians at San Xavier, 
and repeated his request for the assignment of a sum for a like purpose till 
the matter should be decided. The date of the escrito and its contents 
are gathered from the viceroy’s orders of February 14, 1747, requiring 
soldiers sent to San Xavier. 

“Viceroy’s decree of February 14, reciting the contents of the auditor’s 
opinion of January 28 and the decree of Feb. 1. See the letter of Ortiz 
to the king, 1747 (after Feb. 14). Arricivita quotes an order of identical 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 355 

Students should be guarded against an error at this point. An 
original despatch of the viceroy contained in the Lamar Papers, 
here designated as “Erecion,” says that on December 26, 1746, 
the viceroy ordered the establishment of three missions on the 
San Xavier. From what has been stated above it will be seen 
that this is a mistake of the document, although it is an original. 33 

7. Father Ortiz appeals to the Icing, 17J+7 .—Perhaps in despair 
of success at the viceroy’s court, or perhaps at the viceroy’s sug¬ 
gestion, and to aid any effort which the latter might make, Father 
Ortiz now turned to the king himself. In a memorial written 
some time after the viceroy’s decree of February 14, 34 he reviewed 
the circumstances under which the tribes had asked for a mission, 
gave a list of those which had subsequently joined the first four 
tribes in their petition, recounted the efforts that had been made 
in Mexico by the College, and cited the fiscal’s unqualified ap¬ 
proval and the viceroy’s tentative aid recently given. With great 
shrewdness he made much of the political advantages of the de¬ 
sired missions, “even more notable because these Indians and their 
broad, fertile, and bounteous country are coveted by foreign nations, 
who anxiously try to add them to their crowns, and with this aim 
maintain commerce with them and supply them with guns, ammu¬ 
nition, and other things which they know they like.” “It follows, 
therefore,” he continued, “that if they are not heeded, and if— 
God forbid—France, on vrhose colonies they border, should become 
hostile, and, with the desire to gain their affections, should main¬ 
tain closer friendship with said Indians, and they should become 
her partisans, she might without any difficulty get possession of 
not only this province but of many others of New Spain.” But, 
by making the necessary provision for these Indian petitioners, 
New Spain would be sufficiently protected and very much increased. 
Not only would these tribes enter missions, he added, but the 
Apache, who so infested the province, and yet so many times had 
asked for missions, would be forced to accept the faith and attach 

tenor, but gives the date as Feb., 1748. I suspect that he refers to this 
one of Feb. 14, 1747 ( Cronica , 325). 

“See also the erroneous statement in Memorias de Nueva Espanz, 
XXVIII, 179, to the effect that the mission were authorized on Feb. 14, 
1747. 

34 The decree is referred to in the memorial, and reference is made to 
“this year of forty-seven.” 


356 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

themselves to the crown of Spain. “And in this way the Province 
of Texas will become a most extensive and flourishing kingdom, 
wdiich ma} r freely trade and communicate with New Mexico and 
other provinces of New Spain and even with others of your royal 
crown if this communication is sought by sea.” With not a little 
wisdom he argued, further, that by pacifying the Indians and 
peopling the country, many presidios would become unnecessary, 
and the crown thereby saved great expense. 

On the basis of this argument on political grounds, to which 
he did not fail to add the obligation to extend the faith, Father 
Ortiz proceeded to request not only permission to permanently 
found the missions already being provisionally established, and 
all the means necessary for the purpose, but also asked permission 
and funds to establish a hospital in Texas, either at San Xavier 
or other convenient place, to facilitate the broad missionary project 
under contemplation. It should serve as an infirmary and a place 
of rest for sick and wornout missionaries, and be the headquarters 
of the prelate of the San Xavier missions, who otherwise would be 
three hundred or four hundred leagues from headquarters with no 
means of succor or medical aid. In addition to the prelate, there 
would be necessary two missionary priests, to act as substitutes 
for the missionaries, care for the military, and serve civilian Span¬ 
iards, and two lay brothers, one to serve as nurse for the sick, 
and the other to act as financial agent, with the title of conductor 
of alms, to secure funds in Mexico to help on the project. 

Father Ortiz closed by repeating his request for reimbursement 
of the sums that had been spent by the College in maintaining 
three missionaries at San Xavier in the work of catechizing and 
otherwise preparing the Indians for mission life. 35 

8. Opposition to the plans for a temporary garrison .—It was 
not enough for the viceroy merely to order a garrison sent to 
San Xavier, for excuses, or even good reasons for respectful argu¬ 
ment, were easily found and hard to resist. And thus it was with 
the order of February 14. It reached San Antonio on May 7, by 
a courier who had been^delayed on the Eio Grande two months by 
Apache hostilities. This circumstance, coupled with recent occur¬ 
rences at San Antonio and the situation at San Xavier revealed 

35 Memorial of Father Ortiz to the king, after Feb. 14, 1747. 


357 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 


by the declaration of Pruneda, made three days before, augured ill 
for the fulfillment of the despatch. 

On the 9th Fray Mariano presented the document to Urrutia, 36 
and asked for its fulfillment. Urrutia gave formal obedience, but 
w] ote on Mariano’s escrito several reasons why the detachment of 
the twelve soldiers should be suspended until further orders should 
be received from the viceroy. Apache hostilities were especially 
bad just then; in the preceding month the tribe had run off the 
horse herds of three of the missions, and were now camped near 
the San Xavier in large numbers; at that very moment he had in 
his possession a memorial of the cabildo on the subject, dated 
April 29, waiting till a courier could take it to Mexico; and a 
petition from the citizens asking him to request the aid of fifteen 
or twenty of the soldiers of Adaes to strengthen the defense. 37 To 
support this petition, on the next day he presented the matter to a 
joint meeting of the military officers, the cabildo, the justicia, and 
the regimiento of the villa of San Fernando, and this body issued 
a statement similar in tenor to that of Urrutia, adding to his 
reasons for suspending the order the shortage of supplies at San 
Xavier. 38 On May 19 the subsbtance of these deliberations was 
embodied by Urrutia in a consulta , or opinion, and sent to the 
viceroy. 39 

While the immediate purpose of Fray Mariano was thus frus¬ 
trated, the College of Santa Cruz seized the occasion to ask not 
for less but for more. Fray Francisco de la Santissima Trinidad, 
joint agent with Marques at Mexico for the College in promoting 
the San Xavier plan, put in the appeal. In a memorial to the 
viceroy he referred with evident approval to the reasons for not 
fulfilling the order of February 14. He then argued at length 
on the importance of controlling the group of Indians for whom 
the new missions were desired. They lived on the French border, 
secured their firearms from the French, and were in pernicious 

s6 Fray Mariano to Urrutia, in Escrito sobre los 12 Soldados, qe avian de 
hir a Sn. Xavier. 

37 This consulta, is summarized, also, in Memorial del It. P. {Ibid.) 
and in Presidente al Capn. de Sn. Antonio, May 7, 1748. 

38 Diligencias of the cabildo, May 10, 1747, in Dos peticiones del P. Fr. 
Mariano sobre los Yndios de Sn. Xavr. ano de 1747. 

39 This fact is stated in the viceroy’s despatch of July 27: “Todo lo 
qual me participio el citado capitan en consulta de diez, y nueve de Mayo 
passado de este ano.” 


358 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


communication with the French. They were dexterous in the use 
of firearms, and in case of a breach with France it would be im¬ 
portant to have them on the side of Spain. The only way to 
secure this allegiance was to “reduce” them to mission life; this 
done, they would defend the frontier against both the French and 
the Apache, and perhaps bring that dangerous nation to Chris¬ 
tianity. And to do this properly would require a presidio, not 
of twenty-two soldiers, but of sixty or more, for which number 
he now asked. 40 

The matter now went again through the regular routine of the 
viceroy’s secretariat. It was first referred to the fiscal, who replied 
on June 28; and then to the auditor de guerra, Altamira, who 
gave his dictamen on July 4. Complying with Altamira’s advice, 
on July 27 the viceroy issued new despatches. By these despatches 
the nine soldiers belonging to the presidio of Bahia but serving 
at the missions near San Antonio were to return to their post; 
from the presidio of Bahia thirteen soldiers were to be sent to San 
Xavier, and from that of Los Adaes seventeen. Each soldier sent 
was to be of good character and suitable for the purpose. Though 
the captain of Bexar was exempt from complying in form with the 
order of February 14, that place was to suffer a loss of the nine 
soldiers borrowed from Bahia. And the new order must be ful¬ 
filled without excuse or interpretation, on pain of dismissal from 
office and a fine of $6000 for any failure or violation. The viceroy 
was now showing his teeth. 41 


w He continues with a statement of the duties of such a guard, which 
might be interesting to quote (Memorial, en qe. insiste pidiendo la licencia 
para fundar en Sn. Xavier). The archive copy is undated, but it evidently 
fell between May 19, when Urrutia’s consulta was written, and June 28. 
The despatch of July 27 refers to a prolix memorial following the consulta 
of Urrutia and preceding a document of June 28. “Y Sabidor de esto la 
parte del referido colegio insto en su pretension alegando difusamente, 
quanto le parcio convenir a su derecho.” 

41 Altamira gave the opinion that if the missionaries were to ask for a 
hundred settlers for San Xavier he would recommend a subsidy of two 
hundred dollars apiece and liberal grants of land, exemptions, and priv¬ 
ileges; but in order not to venture too freely the royal funds, and since 
the presidio of Sacramento was destined for other purposes, he made the 
recommendation which the viceroy adopted (Desptach of July 27, to the 
governor of Texas and the captain of Bahia). There is some doubt as to 
whether the date of the despatch is July 17 or July 27. My copy from 
the original despatch of February 24 to Governor Larios refers to the 
order as of July 17. But my copy of the original despatch in the archive 
of the College of Santa Cruz is dated July 27. In both cases the words 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 359 


The missionaries were no better pleased with the new order for 
a temporary guard than had been the commanders in Texas with 
the former order. The removal of the nine soldiers from San 
Antonio would be a hardship to the missions; and, besides, what 
the missionaries demanded was a regular presidio. This feeling 
was made known in August by Father Mariano de Anda y Alta- 
mirano, in a memorial to the viceroy. 42 As has already been stated, 
he had been assigned to the new missions on the San Xavier River; 
had been to the site; had been sent to Mexico to aid in securing 
the necessary license; and had heard of the order of July 27. His 
argument now was much like Father Trinidad’s, had been. In his 
memorial he prophesied that the governor of Texas and the cap¬ 
tain at Bahia would give only formal obedience and then proceed 
to raise objections, with resulting delays. As for himself, he saw 
two difficulties. If the nine soldiers of Bahia doing duty at San 
Antonio were to be removed, either they must be replaced by 
soldiers from that presidio or the missions near San Antonio 
’would be without protection. To take soldiers from the presidio 
would leave San Antonio exposed to attack. The presidio of Los 
Adaes, being on the French frontier and surrounded by Indians, 
could ill spare any of its sixty soldiers, most of whom were con¬ 
stantly needed to escort the governor, the missionaries, and con¬ 
voys of goods from Saltillo, to cultivate the fields, or to guard the 
storehouse. 43 The presidio of Bahia was almost as much in danger 
from Apaches as was San Antonio; and the Cujanes were bad. 

Moreover, the garrison of thirty soldiers assigned to San Xavier 
was altogether too small. Twelve men would be needed to guard 
the three missions being planned; ten to guard the horse herd; 
this would leave only six to escort the supply train and the mission¬ 
aries, making no allowance for desertions and deaths. Finally, 
any guard less than fifty soldiers would be too small in case of 
trouble with the barbarian tribes at the new missions or of attacks 
by their enemies. 


are spelled out in full, and I am of the opinion that the correct date is 
July 27 (See despatch, February 24, 1748, Lamar Papers, and Arch. Coll. 
Santa Cruz, K, Leg. 19, No. 71). . 

“Memorial del Pe. Anda al Exmo. Sor Virrey sobre Sn. Xa v ier I jnfer 
the date from the reference in the document to the decision of the past 
month,” alluding to the order of July 27, 1747. 

“Father Anda’s paper gives an interesting statement of the duties of a 
presidial guard. Cf. note 40. 


360 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

The provision of one hundred settlers would not serve at present, 
since it would take a long time to secure them, especially if the 
task were left entirely to the missionaries, already overburdened; 
besides, the allowance of two hundred pesos per family was too 
small, since, in spite of the greatest economy, the expense for one 
missionary going to Saltillo or Coahuila, with only one servant, 
was at least one hundred pesos. 

A presidio at San Xavier, on the other hand, would be on the 
very frontier against the Apaches, and would help to restrain the 
French, who were now entering by way of the Trinity River. 
Indeed, it was now well known that they had a large settlement 
on that stream, with a garrison and fifty or sixty cannon, and 
were supplying the very Indians of San Xavier. 

In view of all the foregoing, Father Anda closed by urging, first, 
that the presidio of Sacramento be moved to the San Xavier River, 
and, second, that thirty or forty men he added to it. If this could 
not be done, he urged that eighty or ninety men be detached from 
other presidios—not including those of Texas—and formed into 
a new presidio at San Xavier. 

As Father Anda predicted, the disposition of the Texas com¬ 
manders to comply was no better than before, though in saying 
this we would not wish to convey the impression that the military 
authorities did not have good grounds for resisting the reduction 
of their petty garrisons. But the resistance of the captain at 
Bahia, Orobio Bazterra, seems to have been in part inspired by 
ill feeling toward Father Mariano. The Apache situation, at 
least, was really serious. The captain set forth his objections in 
communications of Xovember 1 and 21, and the governor, Fran¬ 
cisco Garcia Larios, gave his in one of December 12. 44 From a re¬ 
view of these documents given by the viceroy in a despatch of Jan¬ 
uary 29, 1748, it appears that the objectors maintained that all of 
the soldiers were needed in their respective presidios; that the San 
Xavier, though called a river, was only an arroyo, and that their 
soldiers had refused to go there to live. The governor added that 
he feared that if he should try to carry out the order, the men 
would desert to Natchitoches. This argument might appear friv¬ 
olous if we did not know that twenty years afterward nearly the 

44 These objections are reviewed in the viceroy’s despatch of Jan. 29. 
1748. loc. tit. 


361 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

whole garrison of San Agnstln did that very thing. The captain 
concluded by saying, maliciously, it would seem, or at least with¬ 
out foundation, that the favorable reports given of San Xavier 
were false, and had probably been secured by subornation or col¬ 
lusion of witnesses. 

Captain Orobio had a substitute plan to urge as an excuse for 
non-compliance, and he may have been sincere in his support of 
it. In 1746, as we have seen, he had gone to the lower Trinity 
and the San Jacinto rivers to investigate a rumor of a French 
settlement in that region. While there he had become acquainted 
with the Orcoquiza tribe and learned of the activities of French 
traders among them and the Attacapa. 45 He now represented to 
the viceroy that the “Horquisa” nation was composed of five 
rancherias and three hundred families; that they had asked for 
missions, promising to settle between the Trinidad and the Sabinas 
Rivers, “which is their fatherland”; and that they had repeated 
their offer, promising to return [to Bahia, it seems], in the fol¬ 
lowing March. “He concluded by proposing various reasons for 
embracing and not depreciating this opportunity to reduce Indians 
dextrous with guns, because of their nearness to the Misippi and 
their communication with the French.” 46 

Fear that the viceroy might accept this plan, and that it would 
interfere with their own, sank deep into the minds of the mission¬ 
aries, and they did not lose an opportunity to use their influence 
to defeat it, offering as their best substitute a mission for the 
Orcoquiza at San Xavier. 

9. Three missions authorized by the viceroy (Dec. 23, 17J7).— 
But these arguments of Governor Larios and Captain Orobio came 
too late, for on December 23, 1747, before they had been received, 
the viceroy, conforming with two opinions of the auditor, dated 
December 10 and 19, ordered three missions founded on the San 
Xavier River within the next eight months. 47 In consequence of 

45 Bolton, -‘Spanish Activities on the Lower Trinity,” The Quarterly, 
XVI, 339-377. 

46 Summary in the viceroy’s despatch of Jan. 28, op. cit. 

47 I get the contents from the summaries in Erecion, 8, and letter of 
Santa Ana to the viceroy, in K, leg. 6, No. 18. 

The Erecion, page 8, says that on Dec. 26, 1746, in conformity with 
the auditor’s opinions of Dec. 10 and 17, the viceroy Horcasitas authorized 
the three missions. This cannot have been the case. In the first place, it 
is in conflict with the decrees of Feb. 1 and July 27, 1747, in which the 


362 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

this determination, appropriations were at once made of a year’s 
salary in advance for six missionaries, and for the purchase by the 
royal factor of the necessary ornaments and supplies for the three 
missions. 48 Thus, after two and one-half years of petitioning and 
of heroic efforts at San Xavier, Fray Mariano and his college had 
the satisfaction of obtaining the permission and the help they 
had so zealously sought. 

When the letters of Orobio and Garcia Larios were received by 
the viceroy they were sent, in the regular way, to the fiscal, who 
gave them little weight, arguing especially that it would he foolish 
to give up a project of proved merit, like that of the San Xavier 
missions, for one which had not yet been investigated,, like that 
suggested by Orobio. In consequence, the viceroy issued a dispatch 
on January 29, requiring the governor to carry out his former 
orders at once, and not to neglect that part which provided for 
the encouragement of as many families as possible to go to San 
Xavier to settle, in order that in time the garrison might be un¬ 
necessary. This despatch was enclosed in a letter of February 24. 49 

By virtue of this new order the thirty soldiers were sent under 
the command of Lieutenant Galvan, of the Bexar company. He 
arrived at San Xavier on or about March 13, 1748. The married 
soldiers were followed by their families, who remained a short 
time, as we shall see. 50 

10. By the Icing, April 16, 171/.8 .—Soon after the consent of 
the viceroy was obtained, the petition of Father Ortiz to the royal 
court separately bore fruit. The petition was considered in the 
Council of the Indies, and the resulting action shows that it struck 
the right chord in the royal breast. On the 16th of April, 1748, 

viceroy states that he is suspending final action until the outcome of 
Escandon’s work is known, and of Feb. 14, 1747, granting temporary 
aid, while the matter of approval is under consideration. In the second 
place, Espinosa, writing in 1747 of the San Xavier enterprise, says that 
“although it lacks the confirmation of the Most Excellent Viceroy” it 
appears to “have accepted his Catholic Zeal” (p. 467) ; in the third place, 
other contemporary documents besides the summary in “Erecion,” give 
the date December 23, 1747. See Fray Santa Ana to the viceroy, March 
10, 1749. Dictamen fiscal, July 21, 1748, in Memorias, XXVIII, 73. 

^This had been done by January 23, 1748. See dictamen quoted in the 
viceroy’s despatch of Jan. 20, 1748, loc. cit. 

49 The original despatch is in the Bexar Archives, Miscellaneous, 1742- 
1793, and the accompanying letter in the Lamar Papers. 

50 Fray Mariano tells us in a document written about May, 1749, that 
the soldiers were followed by their families, who remained till May, 1749. 


363 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

more than four months after the viceroy had ordered the missions 
established, more than two years after a tentative mission had ac¬ 
tually been begun, and two months after one of the authorized 
missions had been formally founded, the king issued a cedula to 
the viceroy, setting forth that, although he had not sufficient 
information to form a wholly satisfactory opinion, and though 
the viceroy had not sent the reports which he might have done, yet, 
considering that the gravity of the matter does not admit of 
delay, and that there are in the province of Texas the nations of 
gentile Indians mentioned, soliciting religious in order that they 
may receive holy baptism and attach themselves to the body of the 
Church (which is the principal object which I have ordered at¬ 
tended to and promoted), and considering that the country, because 
of its great extent, unpopulated condition, and nearness to the 
region where the French have intruded, merits greater care and 
vigilance; in order to prevent them from stirring up and attach¬ 
ing to their side the idolatrous Indians, it has seemed proper to 
order and command you” to ascertain for certain that the Indians 
have made such a petition and that the establishment of the mis¬ 
sions would be wise. Such being the case, the viceroy was to 
proceed at once to plant the requisite number of missions, furnish¬ 
ing the means for ornaments and other necessities usually supplied. 
And if the hospital asked for should prove absolutely necessary, 
that, too, was to be founded. Finally, the three missionaries must 
be paid for the time they had been serving at San Xavier. 51 

This situation is certainly an interesting example of the actual 
workings of Spanish government in the distant frontier provinces. 
Since the summer of 1745 the missionaries of the College of Santa 
Cruz had been asking for permission to establish missions at San 
Xavier. Meanwhile they had proceeded without this permission 
to found a mission—a provisional one, it is true, as early as the 
summer of 1746. In February, 1747, the viceroy had furnished 
temporary financial aid for the establishment of missions there, but 
for their formal erection he had withheld his consent. In Decem¬ 
ber, 1747, he had given that consent, without consulting the king, 
it seems. In February, 1748, as will appear, one of the missions 
had been founded with due formality in the king’s name, and now, 

^Royal oedula dated at Buen Retiro, April 16, 1748. Arch. Gen. y 
Plib., Reales CSdulas, Vol. 68, No. 52. 


364 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


in April, two months afterwards, comes the king’s solemn order 
to the viceroy to found the missions if, after due investigation, 
they should be considered desirable. 

It was apparently but another instance in which the local author¬ 
ities, and especially the missionaries, took the initiative, and forced 
the central authorities, reluctantly, to sanction what was already 
done. In the Spanish as well as in the English colonies a cer¬ 
tain measure of independence in actual governments was wrested 
from the central authorities by virtue of the very necessities of 
local initiative due to distance. 52 

11. Opposition at Zacatecas .—The opinion written at the Col¬ 
lege of Zacatecas regarding the royal cedula of April 16, 1748, 
shows that the Zacatecas friars were not altogether pleased with the 
license permitting the sister college to enter the missionary field in 
central Texas. It stated that the College of Santa Cruz had four 
missions at San Antonio, the only ones in Texas at the time of the 
visit of Father Ortiz; that in the belief of the writer, Ortiz’s visit 
had no other purpose than the founding of missions for the central 
Texas tribes; the country of the Mayeyes, where the mission was to 
be founded, was rough and bad; the Tauacana, Quichay, Tancague, 
and Yojuan tribes w*ere too far to the north to be reduced at the 
proposed site; the Yadoxa, from whom the padres had got their 
information, had included them “not to secure Holy Baptism, as 
is supposed, but for the material benefit of clothing, tobacco, maize, 
and more than all this, in order that the Spaniards in a presidio 
may restrain the boldness of the Apache”; it would be better for 
the sick friars of Bio Grande and San Antonio to come to their col^ 
lege than to go to an hospice at San Xavier. Finally, if the 
Bidais wished missions they could enter that of Nacogdoches, where 
they went every year at harvest time and near which they lived, 
or to Los Ais; in either of which missions they would be near their 
own country. The Tawakoni, Kichai, Tonkawa, and Yojuan tribes 
might congregate there also and thus save the expense of new 
missions. 

52 Anonymous Commentary in Cartas del K. P. Comiso. Fr. Manl. Sylva. 
College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas. 


365 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 
IV. THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONS, 17Jf8-17Jf9 

1 • San Francisco Xavier, Feb., 17^8 .—After the viceroy’s 
consent and promise of aid for founding permanent missions 
were received, things for a time went favorably with Fray Mariano’s 
cherished plan. To look after preparations in Mexico, the Col¬ 
lege of Santa Cruz appointed Fray Juan Joseph Ganzabal, who 
was destined four years later to suffer martyrdom at one of the 
missions he was helping to establish. 1 He went from San Antonio 
to Queretaro, arriving there at the end of March. 

In February, probably as soon as he received the good news from 
Mexico, Fray Mariano proceeded to the formal founding of the 
first mission—presumably that already tentatively established— 
taking for the purpose from San Antonio, on his own credit, while 
the royal funds were forthcoming, goods of the value of $5083.50. 2 
The date of the formal founding is fixed by a letter written by 
Fray Mariano himself to Captain Urrutia on May 7, 1748, and is 
thus put beyond dispute. 3 In the same communication Fray 
Mariano called the mission “Xuestra Senora de los Dolores del 
Rio de San Xavier.” This is the earliest name I have seen applied 
to it, but otherwise it is always called San Francisco Xavier. 
Perhaps the former name is the one by which the temporary mis¬ 
sion had gone. 

The progress made at the mission is shown by the report dated 
March 18, by Lieutenant Juan Galvan, who was sent, as has been 
stated, in command of the thirty soldiers who had been ordered 
there. 4 Galvan stated that when he arrived at San Xavier the 
missionaries were without a single soldier. He found already pro¬ 
vided a strong wooden stockade, huts to live in, and supplies of 
seed, stock, working oxen, and clothing for the Indians. At the 
mission there were many Indians, of Rancheria Grande (Hierbi- 
piame), Yojuane, Tonkawa, Mayeye, Deadoses, Bidai, and Orco- 

1 Communication of Ganz&bal, June 14, 1748, in Memorias, XXVIII, 70. 

^Memorial of Ganzabal, Memorias, XXVIII, 72. 

3 Memorial of Fray Mariano to Urrutia, May 7, 1748. The same date is 
also given in Mtisquiz’s report, based on the original baptismal records 
of the mission. 

4 Arricivita, Cronica, 325. There are some indications that Arricivita 
confused the orders of Feb. 1747 for soldiers with that of January, 1748. 
The order of 1747 provided for sending soldiers from San Antonio and 
Adaes; that of 1748 from Bahia and Adaes. Cf. Arricivita, 325. 


366 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 


quiza, and others daily coming. It will be seen that most of the 
tribes named here were among the original petitioners. At the very 
moment when he was writing his report there arrived a band of 
Biclais, who reported that six leagues away there were more than 
four hundred others on the way. 5 An Orcoquiza chief offered to 
bring numerous Indians of the neighboring tribes. Indeed there 
were more Indians than could be supported, in spite of the sup¬ 
plies which Fray Mariano had brought; and before the end of 
March he was constrained to tell the neophytes not to solicit any 
more tribes, to refuse food to all of those already there except such 
as were actually helping in the fields and at the missions, and to 
send word to the tribes on the way to remain at a convenient 
distance. 6 

In reconstructing the picture of life at the new establishment 
the imagination is assisted by the statement that of the twenty- 
eight soldiers there,—two of the thirty assigned were lacking,— 
one was usually employed in supervising the Indians with the stock, 
one assisting in the labor of the fields, six guarding the horse herd, 
ten guarding the missions and the families, and ten escorting the 
sppply trains that brought maize from San Antonio for soldiers 
and neophytes. 7 

Galvan filed with his diligencias a certificate that he did not 
regard the thirty soldiers provided sufficient for the protection of 
the three missions planned, but that a presidio of fifty men would 
be adequate. The College made Galvan’s report the basis of new 
requests, and before the end of the year Father Ganzabal, in 
Mexico, presented a memorial reviewing progress at. San Xavier, 
requesting the repayment of the 5083 pesos 4 reales, and the erec¬ 
tion of a regular presidio of fifty men. 8 

5 Memorial del Pe. Ganz&bal, pidiendo fuerzas para el resguardo de las 
mis&iones de Sn. Xavier; report by Galv&n, in Ganzabal’s memorial (Ar- 
ricivita, 325). Also in Memorias de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 71, where 
I find this date. Fray Mariano states at the end of March there were at 
San Xavier the Rancheria Grande Indians, Yojuanes, Tancagues, and 
others; the Deadoses, Vidays and other nations were at the Brazos, on 
the way; while the other promised tribes were gathering to come. 

•Mariano to Urrutia, May 7, 1748. It was impossible to take from 
San Antonio more than 500 fanegas of maize, and by May 7 this had not 
all been transported {Ibid.). 

7 Memorial del R. P. Presidte. al capn. de Sn. Antonio, May 7, 1748. 

•Memorial del Pe. Ganzhbal, pidiendo fuerzas para el resguardo de 
las misiones de Sn. Xavier. See also Arricivita, Cronica, 325, and 


36? 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

2. Apache attacks and new appeals for help. —Shortage of pro¬ 
visions was not by any means the only trouble that beset the strug¬ 
gling mission early in its career. In April) 1748, in the midst 
of his pious task, Fray Mariano suffered an accident which com¬ 
pelled him to retire to San Antonio for several months, delayed 
the completion of his work, and caused it to devolve largely upon 
Father Santa Ana. 9 When he withdrew he left in charge Fray 
Francisco Cayetano Aponte, apparently the first minister of the 
permanent mission (since Matiano was minister of the mission of 
San Antonio de Valero) and one of those who had been there 
temporarily, since the six' provided by the viceroy did not arrive 
till much later, as will be seen. Scarcely had Fray Mariano reached 
San Antonio when bad news from San Xavier overtook him. 10 
On May 4 Father Aponte wrote him that two days before, more than 
sixty Apaches had attacked the place, ransacking the houses, and 
attempting to stampede the horses. The soldiers and mission 
Indians, of whom there were more than two hundred present, made 
resistance, and succeeded in driving the horses into the corral, 
whereupon the Apaches, seeing themselves outnumbered, withdrew, 
but not without threatening to come again, with a larger force, 
to destroy the place. This threat was understood by a Yojuan 
who had been a captive among the Apaches. In retiring the 
Apaches killed two mission Indians who were encountered return¬ 
ing with buffalo meat. The mission Indians, seeing their danger, 
now began to contemplate withdrawing to the woods for safety. 11 

Before the end of the year three other Apache raids were made 
on the mission. In each the raiders ran off horses belonging to 
Spaniards and Indians. Incident to the four attacks three soldiers 
and four new converts were killed—not a great number, indeed, 
but manifestly large enough to cause the missionaries to fear for 
their personal safety and to lessen the enthusiasm of the tribes 
for residence at the site. The main facts of the first attack are 

Mem. de Nueva Espana, XXVIII, 71. Galvan’s report is described as 
“7 foxas utiles.” 

®Fray Mariano to the viceroy, March 13, 1749. Santa Ana to the vice¬ 
roy, March 10, 1749. The nature of the accident does not appear. After 
reaching San Antonio other ills beset him, almost depriving him of the 
use of his right arm, and extending the duration of his incapacity. 

10 Fray Mariano, Memorial, May 7, 1748. 

xl Ibid. 


368 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

told by Fray Mariano in a memorial of May 7. Subsequent events 
are described in a paper written by him about a year later. 12 A 
second report to Fray Mariano from Fray Cayetano told that on 
May 5 the Indians made good their threat, returned in a great 
multitude, and ran off the horse herd, “the settlement retaining 
its existence solely through divine providence.” 

On receiving the second notice Fray Mariano, who was still sick 
at San Antonio, repaired by petition 13 to Captain Urrutia for help. 
Urrutia replied that he could not give it because sixteen of his 
men—all indeed except those actually occupied in guard duty—had 
gone to Bahia to escort the new governor, Pedro del Barrio, to 
Los Aclaes. 14 Urrutia forwarded the petition with his proveido 
to Governor Barrio, at Bahia, while Father Mariano waited for 
the expected aid. Instead of giving it, however, Barrio wrote a 
sharp reply to Captain Urrutia for having received and forwarded 
the petition, saying that the king was more in need of Urrutia’s 
sword than of his pen. 15 This attitude on the part of Governor 
Barrio, at the opening of his term, was quite in keeping with all 
of his subsequent dealings with Fray Mariano. Indeed, the hos¬ 
tility between these two prominent men was one of the leading 
threads of the history of the San Xavier mission for more than 
a year. 

Fray Mariano was forced, under the circumstances, to make the 
trip to relieve Fray Cayetano with only one soldier and some mis¬ 
sion Indians. Arriving at San Xavier he found that most of the 
mission Indians had fled to the woods, frightened, 16 and threaten¬ 
ing not to return till there should be adequate protection. Fray 
Mariano sent for them, and they were found so near by that they 
returned on the second day, bringing more than had run away. 

“Communication to the governor. In it he speaks of a year having 
transpired since the Apache attacks. I infer that the document was written 
as late as May, 1749. 

“Escrito of May 7. 

“Memorial del R. P. Presidte. al Capn. de Sn. Antonio pidiendo fuerzas 
para la defensa del Presidio, y misiones de S. Xavier. May 7, 1748. 
The word “Presidio” in the title, which is an archive label, is misleading. 

“Escrito presentado al Govr. Dn. Pedro del Varrio sobre Sn. Xavier, 
1749. Fray Mariano later wrote that at the time he attributed this 
position of Barrio “not to passion but to his recent arrival, and his not 
having heard of a person who, sin dablar la hoja y sin embolar los filos , 
does his best to perform his duty (Ibid.). 

16 Cf., letter of March 13, 1749, for these events. 


369 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

After that, says Fray Mariano, they remained steadfast up to the 
time of his writing. We thus infer that the mission continued in 
operation. 

Notwithstanding his sharp reply to Urnitia, Fray Mariano Barrio 
wrote that he would hasten to San Xavier. He did so, arriving 
on May 26 and remaining two days. During this time he con¬ 
ducted an investigation, about which we shall hear in another con¬ 
nection. Before leaving he ordered the soldiers to send their wives 
and children away, the inference being that he did so on account 
of danger from the Apaches. He also suggested, as a means of 
increasing the temporary defences, that Father Mariano bring 
from San Antonio fifteen or twenty mission Indians. 17 

Fray Mariano continued ill 18 for a year or more after April, 
1748, and could not carry on the work at San Xavier, but Father 
Santa Ana supervised it, and it seems that one or more mission¬ 
aries spent a part of the time with Father Aponte. 19 

By March, 1749, Father Santa Ana was able to report a good 
beginning for the first mission. He wrote on the 10th of that 
month: “The mission of San Javier, having some established 
form, has been situated on this River since February of last year. 
Xot counting those who have died Christians, there are listed in 
it of the nation of the Mayeye thirty-two men, among them being 
only two old men, one of sixty and the other of eighty years of 
age. The women number only forty-one, because this nation has 
been attacked by the Apaches. The youths, maidens, and children, 
likewise number only thirteen, for the same reason. Of the nation 
of the Hierbipiamos there are thirty-one men, there being no 
old men among them; women, twenty-one, boys and girls, eleven. 
This nation suffered the same assaults as the former. Of the 
nation of the Yojuanes twenty-six men, none of them old; women, 
twenty-three; boys and girls, seven; youths, twenty-eight. With 
these three nations there are some Tanchagues, who struggle with 


17 K, leg. 19, Nos. 79 and 80, Arch. Coll. Santa Cruz. 

]8 Santa Ana wrote to the viceroy March 10, 1749, that Fray Mariano 
was entirely free from blame for any shortcoming at the new missions, 
having been since the month of April of last year gravely ill; “for which 
reason I was obliged, from that time, to continue with the matters pending 
relative to the three new missions of said river. But as soon as he is 
restored from his illness he will perfect and complete what he has begun.” 
Dictamen del Auditor de guerra. 

ia My evidence for this is given further on. 


370 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

the Apaches, whom they attacked last year before the governor of 
Coahuila did so.” 20 

3. Assignment of regular missionaries. —At the end of March, 
1748, the first regular assignment of missionaries was made by 
the College. On the 31st of that month the newly elected guard¬ 
ian, Fray Francisco Xavier Castellanos, himself a former worker 
in Texas, 21 wrote to the president, Father Santa Ana, in regard 
to his plans. The new missions had been erected into a presi¬ 
dency, and Fray Mariano, of course, made the president. 21a Six 
new missionaries were to be provided for Texas, but three of them 
were to change places with three of the “antiguos” (old mission¬ 
aries) at the San Antonio missions, two from mission Valero and 
one other. With these three men already in Texas, three of the 
new ones were to go to San Xavier, the rest to be distributed else¬ 
where, as President Santa Ana should see fit. 

The Valero missionaries at this time were Fray Mariano and 
Fray Diego Martin Garcia. The latter had been in Texas since 
1741, at least- 22 It is to him that we owe the preservation of the 
earliest records of the Texas missions. Later he saw service in 
the missions of northern Sonora. The missionaries named in the 
guardian’s letter were Friars Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, Juan 
de los Angeles, and Saluad de Amaya, all of whom had formerly 
served in Texas; 23 and Juan Hernandez, Mariano Anda, and Fray 
Domingo, referring by the last name, no doubt, to Fray Juan 
Domingo Arricivita, later known as the historian. The document 
does not state in terms that all of these men are among the mis¬ 
sionaries to be sent, but such is the implication. It will be seen 
later on that some of them did and some did not operate at San 
Xavier. In addition to these six new missionaries, sent in the 
name of the three new missions, Father Castellanos promised to 
send others to supply deficiencies. 

20 Dictamen del Auditor. For the attack by the governor of Coahuila, 
see Dunn, Apache Relations in Texas, 254. 

21 He had been at the mission of Valero twenty years before. See 
Schmidt, Franciscan Missionaries in Texas, 7. 

21 aNevertheless, the San Xavier missions continued to be administered 
as belonging to the presidency of San Antonio. 

22 See Schmidt’s list, op. cit. 

23 Terreros had been at Valero in 1730 and 1731; Amaya was in Texas 
during the period 1728-1734. Schmidt, op. cit .; and Los Angeles in 1744. 
Schmidt, op. cit. 


371 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 

Of the new workers the guardian specifically assigned to stations 
only two. They were Fathers Terreros and Hernandez, who were 
to take the places of the Valero ministers. Two of the appointees 
seem to have been considered hard to get along with. President 
Santa Ana was instructed to see to it that all did their full duty, 
and to send them back to the College for discipline if necessary. 
“Hoc dico sub sigilo with reference to the Fathers Preachers Anda 
and Amaya, for the others, I have no doubt, will conduct them¬ 
selves well.” 

“With respect to Father Preacher Anda, your Eeverence will 
see whether it is proper for him to remain in those missions or 
those of San Xavier, and with your accustomed prudence will 
decide the matter; for I desire to relieve your Eeverence as much 
as possible of the cares which the reverend fathers presidents are 
caused by the lack of congeniality and agreement of the mission¬ 
aries.” 24 

To aid in their work, the missionaries were to take from the 
missions of San Antonio, or from the Eio Grande if necessary, 
as many families of converted Indians as might be needed. Cattle 
and other supplies were also to be secured from these places, at a 
fair price it was hoped, and the new missions were to pay them 
back “when, how, and in what” was possible. Matters not specific¬ 
ally provided for in the instruction were to be decided by the two 
presidents in conference. 25 

The missionaries were all supplied and ready to go when the 
above communication was written, and presumably they soon set 
out. 26 

J. The supplies - delayed .—On June 13, the new missionaries 
reached San Antonio, but through slowness in the despatch of the 
supplies, and Fray MJariano’s illness, there was another half year’s 
delay. The situation on June 24 is stated in Father Santa Ana’s 
letter of that date to the viceroy: “I am obliged to make known 
to your Excellency that on the 13th of June I found myself with 
the religious who ought to be in the missions of San Xavier, and 
the simple notice that within eight months the reduction of the 
Indians in three missions should be effected. 

24 Castellanos and Amaya had been in Texas about the same time. 

25 Father Castellanos to Fray Santa Anna, March 31, 1748. 

26 “Por hallarse ya los Ministros en vn todo hauiados, y para salir a las 
nuebas conversiones.” Castellanos, op. cit. 


372 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

“This appears to be a decree of December of the past year, but 
it is morally impossible to put it into effect until the supplies 
come (which will be in the month of October or November), for 
it is certain that among these Indians there is not a thing with 
which they can sustain and maintain themselves unalterably in 
that place, since their sustenance depends on the chase. 

“And thus the entry of the religious and the supplies most be 
provided for, certainly with six hundred fanegas of maize for each 
one of the conversions, and also some cattle, sheep, and goats. All 
of this up to the present it has been impossible to provide, now for 
lack of pack mules, and the inseparable cost of freightage; now 
because the enemies, as I suppose the ministers of your Excellency 
have reported, make it impossible to travel the road without diffi¬ 
culty. And thus, with great humility, I will do what your Excel¬ 
lency orders, but only in the most opportune time and by the 
best means. 27 

“In case of founding in fact the missions of San Xavier, there 
will be necessary an order from your Excellency to the effect that 
the governor of this province or another minister assist at this 
act with the accustomed formality, giving in your Excellency’s 
name possession of that country to the Indians which, all being 
recorded by juridical diligencias, may be- sent to the Secretaria 
de Govierno, as a means by which your Excellency may be in¬ 
formed of the number of souls which enter each one of the con¬ 
versions.” 29 

Although the documents are not explicit on this point, it seems 
that some of the new missionaries went to San Xavier during the 
course of the summer of 1748, in spite of the delay of the supplies. 
At any rate, we knew that “padres and soldiers” lived there during 
the “rigor of the drought” of that summer. We have seen that 

27 At this point the president explained why the demand for thirty 
soldiers had been changed to one for fifty, the reason given being the 
change of site from the country of the petitioners to the San Xavier. 

28 Carta Ynforme qe. hizo a Su Exa. el Rdo. Pe. Preste. Fr. Benitto, 
June 24, 1748. The main contents of this communication are quoted in 
a letter of Santa Ana to the viceroy dated March 10, 1749. He there 
states: “In June of the past year there came to my hands a simple copy 
of the decree of your Excellency issued in December, of the year 47, and 
at the same time entered the religious who were to assist in the three 
missions of the Rio San Javier, and without loss of time I made supplica¬ 
tion from this decree in the following terms,” quoting what has been given 
above. 


373 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 


Father Aponte was alone in May, when Father Mariano went to aid 
him, and that Father Mariano was sick at San Antonio on June 
24. Therefore it is evident that someone went to San Xavier to 
aid Father Aponte after that date, 30 , otherwise the plural, “padres,” 
could not be used. So much, at times, are we forced to depend 
upon inference. 

5. The founding of Mission San Ildefonso, February, 17Jf9 .— 
Because of the illness of Father Mariano, the founding of the two 
remaining missions fell to Father Santa Ana. As he had predicted, 
it was December before the supplies arrived at San Antonio. With 
them he proceeded to the San Xavier, reaching the place on De¬ 
cember 27. 31 There were now nine missionaries on the ground, 32 
and prospects looked bright. 

The time between December 27 and February 25 Santa Ana 
and the missionaries spent in founding the second mission, 33 which 
the}'' placed down the river, near the mouth of Brushy Creek, and 
which was given the name of San Ildefonso. Since adverse reports 
had been made with respect to the suitability of the site, Fray 
Santa Ana, immediately on arriving, took testimony of the soldiers 
and missionaries who had lived on the San Xavier during the 
dry season, as to the volume of water during the drought, and then 
proceeded to explore the river himself, up to Apache Pass. Though 
the soldiers and missionaries agreed that the water supply was 
plentiful, when Father Santa Ana came to request them to swear 
to the statement they refused to do so, from which he suspected 
that they had sworn to the contrary for their officials. 34 

Santa Ana’s statements as to what he did in respect to the dis- 

30 Letter of Santa Ana to the viceroy, March 10. 1749. 

31 Santa Ana to the viceroy, March 10, 1749, in Dictamen del Auditor. 
“Llegando a esta pais de Sn. Javier al mismo tiempo, que los avios, y 
fue el dia 27 de Dizre. del ano pasado.” 

32 This is not mere inference; Father Santa Ana states the fact. Ibid., 
12. He does not state that there were not more than nine. 

33 “En confianza de dha. dilijensia, y aver entrado en Dizre. los avios, 
a las Misiones de Sn. Anto. y Sn. Javier, en 27 de dho mes, no se pudieron 
asertar las tres conversions tan prontas como la deseava, y mas no 
teniendo dia asentado asta el dia 25 de fro; en que se conocio alguna 
serenidad, y todo efectuo.” (Report to the viceroy, March 10, 1749, in 
Dictamen del Auditor de guerra. In the same report he twice says that 
he was just finishing the founding of this mission on February 25 when 
a despatch reached him. 

3i Ibid., p. 12. 


374 


The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

l » 

tribujtion of the tribes among the different missions is of highest 
value for the ethnology of some of the tribes and for specific 
information regarding mission beginnings. Following the pre¬ 
scribed practice, not always observed, he separated the various 
bands on the basis of racial and linguistic affiliation. At the mis¬ 
sion of San Francisco Xavier he left the May eyes, Hierbipiames, 
and Yojuanes, all related to and allied with the Tancahues (Tonk- 
awa), a few of whom were there also. Noting that the Bidai, 
Deadoses, and Oreoquizas were camping together, that they spoke 
the same language, and were closely intermingled by marriage, he 
took them to a site about three-quarters of a league (he says 
about a league, but a later survey called it three-quarters) down 
the river from the San Francisco Xavier mission and founded for 
them that of San Ildefonso, which was nearly completed on Feb¬ 
ruary 25. 35 

When he reported the result of his work on March 10, there 
were at the mission of San Francisco Xavier fifty-nine May eyes, 
seventy Hierbipiames, and eighty Yojuanes, a total of two hun¬ 
dred and thirteen persons; and at San Ildefonso there were 
sixty-five families, or two hundred and two persons, comprising 
fifty-nine Oreoquizas, eighty-eight Bidai, and fifty-five Deadoses. 36 

The president reported that of the Tonkawa alone he might 
proceed to the founding of the third mission,* but concluded that 
since they were related to and allied with the Indians of the San 
Xavier mission, they might be reduced there, leaving the third 

33 “I observed that among the Indians who were at San Xavier and who 
wished to enter the missions there were some Horcoquisas Indians who 
camped among the Vidais and Deadoses; that the language of these and 
the Horcoquisas was the same; and finally, that many Orcoquisas women 
were married to the Vidais and Deadoces, and that the women of these 
nations [had] relations with the Horcoquisas Indians (Indios). Accord¬ 
ingly, as soon as I began the foundation of the mission of San Yldefonso, 
which is distant from the already' founded San Xavier about a league, 
going down to the east, I decided that all of the souls of the three said 
Nations should go to said new foundation of San Yldefonso which they 
have done.” Ibicl., p. 9. 

30 “There are in it [San Ildefonso] 65 families; of the Orcoquisa nation, 
21 families, which, with men, women and children comprise the number 
of 58 souls, including their captain, who is the oldest of all, being about 
69 years old. Of the Vidais nation there are 26 families, which include 
26 men, 32 women, and 30 boys and girls, making altagether 80 persons, 
in which are included eight old women. Of the nation of the Deadoses 
there are 18 families, composed of 18 men, 21 women, 16 boys and girls. 
In all 65 persons, and of the three nations the number of persons with 
which this mission was founded appears to be 199.” Ibid., 10. 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 375 

establishment—to be located above the first—for the Cocos and their 
allies from the coast. 

In regard to the outlook Santa Ana was hopeful. If what 
Orobio had said was true, the Orcoquizas alone would supply 
three missions; since the Cocos had mustered the former tribes, 
they must have been at least as numerous; while the mission of 
San Francisco Xavier would yield nothing to the others in poipt 
of numbers. “And thus there can be no doubt of the copious 
fruit which is hoped for in the three missions of the Fiver of 
San Xavier, and on this score everything that the Father Preacher 
Fr. Mariano de los Dolores has written too the Superior tribunal 
is confirmed. 7 ’ Of the water supply there was no doubt; irriga¬ 
tion would be easier even than at San Antonio; and as to the fer¬ 
tility of the soil, it would support not only three missions but all 
the Indians of the whole province of Texas and as many Spaniards 
besides. The climate was good and the natural fruits of the coun¬ 
try bountiful and useful. One drawback, however, was the fact 
that the soldiers did not have with them their families, for there 
were only two women at the post, which fact would have a very bad 
effect on the Indians. Finally, a regular presidio was needed. 37 

6. Desertion of the Cocos and the founding of Mission Cande¬ 
laria, 1749 .—In the midst of their labors the missionaries were 
dismayed by the desertion of the Coco Indians to their native 
haunts. The reason given was the bad conduct of the garrison. 
They were in ill humor through bad fare and hardship, “and know¬ 
ing that anything they could do to contribute to the ruin of these 
missions gave pleasure to their captains, they treated the Indians 
with excessive insolence, inflicting upon them serious and con¬ 
tinued extortions, the supplications of the religious not being 
sufficient to restrain them. 77 Under these circumstances the Cocos, 
who were being maintained at San Udefonso until their mission 
of Candelaria should be completed, deserted early in 1749 and 
fled to their own country. 

This was a heavy blow to the missionaries, who feared that the 
fact of the desertion would be used by their opponents as a weapon 
against them, and that the example of the Cocos would be followed 
bv the other tribes. But Father Santa. Ana did not give up in 


37 Santa Ana to the viceroy, March 10, 1749. 


376 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

defeat; on the contrary, he set out alone in pursuit of the Indians, 
in spite of the danger presaged by soldiers and neophytes. 

After extreme fatigues Father Santa Ana managed to find the 
Cocos in their haunts between the Colorado and the Brazos. 
At the time the tribe was suffering from measles and smallpox. 
The friar succeeded in his mission, and it was agreed that those 
not yet infected should accompany him, the others following when 
they had recovered. He took back with him eighty-two persons, 
and with them as a nucleus founded the mission of Nuestra 
Sen ora de la Candelaria. The Coco chief sent three of his sons to 
Mission Valero to learn the Spanish language, and later they 
became interpreters for the missionaries. 38 

On April 14, Fray Mariano reported from San Antonio to 
Father Ganzabal. that he had news that the third mission had been 
founded of Cocos, Tusos (Tups) and other Indians. Even the 
Jaranames wished to enter it, he said. 39 On August 11 the 
guardian, Castellanos, wrote a long memorial to the viceroy report¬ 
ing the evidence that the third mission had been established, and 
asking for the payment of $5083.50 spent by Fray Mariano in 1748 
before the arrival of the funds; for $2700 for the maintenance of 
three missionaries at San Xavier during the whole of 1746-1747; 
and for the erection of the hospice. This, he said, should be estab¬ 
lished at San Antonio, and would cost about $14,000 besides run¬ 
ning expenses. He closed by reiterating the need of a presidio. 40 

7. Results .—We get some very intimate details of conditions at 
San Xavier just after the establishment of the second and third mis¬ 
sions through the reports of an inspection made of them in May. 
1749, by General Barrio. The governor counted in mission San Ilde- 
fonso forty-six adult men, forty-eight women and thirty-one chil¬ 
dren ; in mission San Francisco Xavier there were fifty men, thirty- 
three women, and thirty-seven children; in Candelaria, twenty- 
four men, twenty-five women, and twenty-two children, a total of 
three hundred and twenty-two persons. Besides these, some were 
absent with permission hunting buffalo and eating wild fruit in 

3S I have these details from Morfi, Bk. VIII, paragraphs 30-33. 

89 Memorial by the guardian, Fr. Francisco Xavier Castellanos, July. 
1749. Presented Aug. 11, 1749. 

40 Iv, leg. 6, Nos. 5 (y 11), Arch. Coll Santa Cruz. 


RD 1 2.8 


The Founding of Missions on San Gabriel River 377 


the woods. 41 The missionaries were still complaining that the 
lack of supplies was such that they had to turn away numerous 
Indians who would be glad to enter the missions, “for neither 
God, the King, nor reason permits the Indians to he congregated 
to be killed by hunger and made to work. Therefore we have 
in the missions only those whom we can support well.” 

At this time Fray Mariano wrote, in the course of a dispute 
with the governor, that “In all the missions the Indians say prayers 
morning and afternoon. They live congregated in pueblos, and 
labor in so far as their wildness permits, making their fences and 
clearing their corn patches. In Texas [i. e., eastern Texas] they 
are not congregated, much less do they say prayers. At the same 
time, they are in the missions without your lordship having ordered 
them called or the soldiers bringing them. Therefore, it is because 
they desire it. It is thus manifest that these missions are a fact, 
and that the Indians do not live like the Texas up to the present.” 42 

Some time before this the lands and the river had been inspected 
with a view to opening irrigating ditches. The inspection had been 
made by Fathers Mariano and Pedro Yzazmendi, for, as Fray Mari¬ 
ano wrote, “Of all those in the provinces, we alone understand 
[surveying] both theoretically and practically,” 43 

The garrison which had been taken there in May, 1748, was 
now under a cavo named Phelipe de Sierra, from whom Governor 
Barrio withheld even the right of jurisdicdon ordinario. It 
was not up to its full quota of thirty men, for during much of 
the past year from two to four of the seventeen assigned from Los 
Adaes had been lacking. 

In the previous May, Barrio, during his first visit, had ordered 
the families of the soldiers sent away, perhaps on account of the 
Apache hostilities. The order had been carried out, and during 
the whole year the soldiers had been without the comforts of family 
life, at which they complained, especially since it increased their 
labor, for, ‘^having no one to prepare a mouthful for them, they 
were obliged to do it themselves, their ordinary food being maize, 

^Morfi, Bk. 8, par. 56. This shows that Mission Candelaria was founded 
by May/1749, and that Mtisquiz was wrong in his report on this point, 
wherein he says it was founded in July. 

^Escrito presentado al Govr. Bn. Pedro del Varrio sobre Sn. Xavier, 
1749. 

* 3 Ibid. 


378 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 

boiled and toasted.” 44 The Indians, too, Fray Mariano com¬ 
plained, were displeased, since they concluded that with the fam¬ 
ilies there, the Spaniards would better defend the place against 
the Apaches, which was one of the cardinal points to be considered. 
Documents of a later date show that, according to the usual cus¬ 
tom in founding new missions, Christianized Indians from San 
Antonio were taken to San Xavier to serve as teachers and inter¬ 
preters. Among them were Sayopines, Cocos, Pajalaches, and 
Ore j ones. 

The foregoing study has set forth the story of the inception of 
the missions in the San Gabriel valley, of the struggle for legal 
authority to establish and for means to support them, and of their 
actual beginnings, down to the middle of the year 1749. A sub¬ 
sequent paper will trace in like detail the struggle of the mission¬ 
aries to secure Spanish settlers and a regular presidio for San 
Xavier; their difficulties with the soldiers and with governors 
Barrio and Barrios y Jauregui; the survey of the site by Eca y 
Musquiz; the opening of the “acequia” and the building of the 
dam; the troubles due to Indian desertion and the terrible scourge 
of smallpox; the violent contest of the missionaries with Babago, 
the commander of the new presidio, and his excommunication by 
Father Pinilla; the murder of Father Ganzabal and the abandon¬ 
ment of the San Xavier site; the removal of the garrison to the 
San Marcos Eiver, the founding of a mission on the site of XeAV 
Braunfels for some of the surviving neophytes, and the absorption 
of the San Xavier forces b}' the new mission enterprise on the 
San Saba River. 45 

“Ibid. 

45 A part of this story is briefly told in the following paper by Mr. Dunn. 







































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